HDFC Bank just started the new year on a high note. As you might know, HDFC Bank has been very aggressive in giving generous Limit enhancement offers during Covid-19. They’ve done it twice already in last one year.
And now they’re taking one more aggressive step and upgrading many cardmembers to Infinia and Diners Black, as LIFETIME FREE, as reported by many readers. This is a pre-approved offer decided by the bank based on various parameters.
What’s happening?
Generally speaking, anyone with a higher credit limit usually gets auto eligible for Super Premium cards like HDFC Infinia (~8L) or Diners Black (~5L).
As many were getting the limit enhancements recently, its obvious that they start to fall into higher limits as above. So these upgrades are naturally happening.
Apart from the limit, it also seems that they made it “relatively liberal” on deciding to whom to give these cards, especially the Infinia.
Additionally, these cards are issued as Lifetime Free variant as per the pre-approved offer. That’s right! Lifetime Free Super Premium Credit Card.
Should you get them?
ABSOLUTELY!
If you’re new the HDFC super premium cards, you should check out the HDFC 10X Rewards program which is perhaps the best ever offer on the planet earth.
Hence, it makes sense to grab the LTF offer when offered, as they come with massive value. Do check out the detailed reviews of them in above links, if not already.
Over 20+ readers have reported about it so far and I’m sure many more would have got as well. So do check the net-banking if you’re eligible for the same.
If you are new to all these, login to HDFC net banking and check out: Cards > Request > Credit card Upgrade/Limit Enhancement to see if you’re eligible for credit limit enhancement or upgrade or both.
Is it really Lifetime Free?
Before answering that, do know that generally no card is actually Lifetime Free as we know The Truth about Lifetime Free Credit Card. But in the HDFC context for super premium cards, its definitely worth going for it.
So if you’re wondering whether its FYF or LTF due to the footnotes on the HDFC upgrade page, you may call RM or customer care and get the confirmation from them before proceeding.
Note: Over 50+ readers already checked and got the confirmation that its indeed a LTF offer. If any executive says otherwise, hang-up and call again 🙂
Bottomline
Note that this is offered only to existing HDFC credit cardholders and not for new customers, as the ban by RBI for card issuance to new customers is still not revoked.
Its obvious that HDFC is on track to make the most out of the existing cardholders. But issuing super premium cards as LTF in this scale is just MIND BLOWING.
While that all sounds good, its usually a signal for devaluation. But at the same time, the good news is, if that happens we may expect some new credit cards positioned on top of these cards. So I hope there is nothing to worry, at-least for now!!
Did you receive the limit enhancement or upgrade offer? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.
P.S. If you’re shopping new cards this new year, consider checking out the limited period offer by American Express: Get Amex Membership Rewards Credit Card as First Year Free + Rs.500 Amazon Voucher
I have NOT upgraded to INFINIA from DCB just beacuse I have to carry an extra Priority card for Lounge access.
Not even sure, whether Infinia Priority Pass covers all the lounges like DCB does .
Priority pass has more coverage in terms in Lounges.
Even I had seen the offer. Did some pros and cons. Decided to upgrade even I have to pay the fees because I’ll be planning carefully to use it with accelerated benefits.
I have a HDFC salary account since July 2016 so the DCB upgrade is quite good(I already had 5.2L limit).
Dear Binay,
DCB does not require Priority pass. Also in domestic lounges you do not need Priority pass.
Dude Really, haha.. Priority pass covers more lounges within and outside India. Anwways Infinia Visa Card already having 4 free lounge access per Q which I dont think is less, still if u need more then only u need to use ur Priority pass else Infinia card is enough for the access. And in terms of acceptance Visa/Mastercard is much much widely accepted as compared to DB card
I didn’t know that Infinia has in built lounge access.
I always dreaded the idea of carrying an extra PP .
Thanks All
Hi Binay,
A lot of people are talking that getting an upgrade from DCB to Infina is not possible if one opts for DCB upgrade they can’t get Infina(Visa or Master Card).
Just wanted to confirm if you have received the upgrade offer from DCB to Infinia. Will you mind confirming.
Hey Siddharth,
Thanks for writing this post. I am sure, many people have taken benefit from this article and upgraded their cards. Keep up the good work. Do you have any plans to start a newsletter?
No, I didn’t receive any LTF upgrade option.
But I was offered Infinia FYF, by my RM.
I wanted to keep both cards 😀 , they didn’t comply.
So I could go for Infinia, but slightly hesistant.
It just may be true. I know someone with Limit 12L on DCB. He is offered a higher limit of whopping 24L,but no upgrade to infinia! Strange. Strange still – why would anyone need a limit of 24L on a credit card!! In case you’re curious – The person involved has no inclination to accept the limit enhancement offer.
how did he get the offer ? what and how is his use ? and did he maintain good balance in HDFC accounts ? can you help with some details please ?
Anyone got a message about upgrade from Regalia to Diners Jet credit card…. I believe it’s intermiles program…is it useful..I am an imperia customer…should I wait
My Regalia card got upgraded to DCB
Can you tell what was your credit limit when u received the offer for an upgrade?
I have around 4.3 lac, but still not received the upgrade offer…
For Infinia you need at least 8+ Lakh credit limit with good annual spending of at least 8 lakhs.
It Was around 4.4 L , while upgrading to DCB theres a LE to 5 + L
I have a limit of Rs. 7,77,000(Diners Premium Card) And I already spend more than 12 lakh between Mar- 2020 and Dec-2020. But still I didn’t get offer..!.!
Same here, have 10L limit on Regalia plus Imperia customer. Still didn’t get any offer. Any idea what can be done.
Same here… I have regalia and is my main card since lon time. But didnt get the offer. Looks like I should move on to Amex atleast they gave better service than HDFC
How did you validated that the uograde card is being given as Life Time Free?
Call virtual RM
Oh..so i might also receive it anytime soon…I have nearly same limit…
My regalia got upgraded to dcb
I have a limit of around 5.7 lac on Regalia. Got the LTF upgrade offer to DCB yesterday.
I have Regalia too. How to upgrade please?
Speak to your RM. My RM called & did everything required to upgrade me into Diners Black LTF. Thank you.
but is this in RM’s hand?
everytime I talk to him, he says this in not in his radius..
You can fill upgrade form and send the chennai address then you will easly upgrade your card
My regalia first card upgrade to DCB.
Sbi elite offer’s Amazon prime membership for 1 year.
More Info on this pls.
Hi, Did you receive the DCB card? My regalia card has been upgraded, but i haven’t received the DCB card for a week now.
Sid, Any thoughts on how long one has to wait to receive upgraded DCB/Infinia CC?
My CC DETAILS have been changed to DCB from regalia in the HDFC Bank site but I haven’t received the card yet.
It appears that it may take 3 weeks as the demand has surged.
Damn! I should have waited for this. The LE offer last year took my Regalia’s limit over 8L and I immediately applied for Infinia and got it approved in November 2020.
How Did you Apply for Infinia ?
Request the bank to align with present offer. i.e.No fee. Might get obliged.
Ok
@SID, when can we expect artice on best cards of 2021 🙂
In a week, waiting for the ACE pic 🙂
Do consider Bajaj Finance co-branded cards, I am using them from almost a year and savings are good enough to consider among best card categories.
Let me know if you need more details.
Which one exactly you’re referring to?
The one with fuel benefit seem to have so many complaints. Not sure about others.
Bajaj Platinum Life Easy, Travel Plus & Value Plus card.
Using above 3 cards within my family and saving 10% flat on fuel spends every month. No other card close to this benefit on fuel spends.
I remember 7-8months ago i commented under Fuel Cards article as well to include Bajaj card as number 1 best fuel card but I think comment didn’t got considered or approved.
Problem with the fuel card is I see many reporting issue with the 10% value thing. Are you able to see bonus points & redeem at the said value?
Initially RBL guys were not clear about difference in cashback & reward thing.
Travel Easy & value plus cards have no rewards applicable. So cashback points are credited for Fuel txns on rewards portal which we can redeem directly as statement credit.
I think minimum cashback to be redeemed is >= 500 and no redemption charges.
How to check if it’s lifetime free or they will charge next year. kailash
Worst bank with worst customer service
Hi Rishabh – can you please explain how you calculated the 10% savings on fuel.
Thanks!
Hi,
On Fuel Txns, bank adds flat 10% value as Cashback on rewards portal (not as reward points) and Surcharge Waiver is separate so 11% benefit actually,
I can give U ace pictures
Sid, per my request on the Best Cards 2020 article.
“Sid, please do articles on:
Golf benefit of credit card and how to utilize it.
Credit cards that give points for wallet loading.
Credit card that give cashback.
Also, update article on fuel cards?”
Anyhow, please please have section for wallet.
And have an update on lounge access article.
Noted, thank you.
And the long pending one also
(AmEx Plat concierge 😉 )
Its taking me massive amount of time to write that article. Half way though. Will publish soon.
Knock – knock…
(What do I do? Everytime there is 125K Platinum upgrade offer in my mailbox, I get reminded of your concierge article 😛 )
Ah. You may go for it right away as you get a lot more value for 1st year anyway.
Can I or shall I change my diners black to infina credit card? considering monthly cap of 7500 points in diners black and 15k in infinia?
I would’ve taken it, but don’t have the option, unfortunately. Despite a 11L+ limit on my DCB.
Same despite having 15L on DCB.
Ditto. and the RM is pretty usless.
Same even with a 12.5 l limit on my LTF DCB
Lot many like me with DCB and a good limit but not given option for Inifina LTF while new customers keep geting it.
RM and Branch are of no use.
I applied through online portal for both the cards. Diners black for my wife, infinia for mom. It did say no annual fee on both, but on footnotes it was mentioned annual fee waived only for 1st year. Anyways, just recd. this sms from them for the infinia –
UPDATE!
Thank you for choosing to upgrade on lifetime free HDFC Bank INFINIA Credit Card. Due to unusually high demand, we’ll be dispatching your Card in 3 weeks & keep you updated. Meanwhile you can continue using your existing card.
So, infinia life time free confirmed. For Diners will wait more. But I’m just afraid that with soo many cards upgraded recently, there’s no way the current benefits will continue. As it is the cap of 70% for points redemption is really bad (probably a first amongst major cards issuer), and I’m sure more point cuts (like 10x to 5x etc.) are bound to happen.
my wife only got an offer to upgrade from DC Clubmiles to DC privilege despite having 16L limit. sad for us
Auto upgrades usually happen step by step.
Hi Sid I got the upgrade option from Regalia to DCB as my limit is only 5.26 lacs. My ultimate aim is to get infinia. Does DCB offer upgrade to infinia down the road? Also how’s DCB acceptability in TN as I live in Chennai
I have the same doubt. My ultimate aim is to get the Infinia and I am not really sure if HDFC will allow me to upgrade to Infinia if I take the DCB offer now.
I am a long time HDFC bank customer and recently got offer for Regalia->DB LTF, should I upgrade ? What’s the acceptance of DB online & offline in India as of 2021 ? Please suggest
I recently got an upgrade from Regalia First LTF with 7.42L to DB LTF 7.42L. The acceptance of DB Card is not really great! I live in Hyderabad and the card is not accepted by few POS machines. The POS machines at cafes I visit regularly do not accept this card. This card is not accepted for Apple Subscriptions and Amazon Canada. I’ve requested the bank over an email to upgrade my card to INFINIA as the DB card has only 14 digits whereas INFINIA is a 16 digit card which is accepted every where. 14 digit cards are not accepted everywhere. Received a reply from the bank saying I’d be upgraded to INFINIA Card FYF (not LTF) but didn’t specify anything about Limit enhancement. They have asked me to revert with duly signed scan copy of card upgrade form to proceed further. I’m skeptical about this because I believe that DB Card has better membership offers. I don’t think I’d be spending >8 Lakhs in an year.
I find my journey with HDFC credit card little strange. in Jan/Feb 2020 i got upgraded to Regalia from Regalia First. Then got couple of LE offers which I promptly did and my credit limit is 3.30 lacs. And then suddenly around Nov I get these messages for upgrade to Diners Privilege which I ignored and then got message for upgrade to DCB LTF. Too hard to pass up 🙂 And just today I got message for LE on DCB to 3.9
Strange because – I rarely used my Regalia in 2020 and DCB with so less limit was unheard
Not sure if mine’s a special case; I jumped straight from Moneyback to Infinia with this offer, so clearly mine wasn’t a step-by-step.
Limit is ~8L, been a customer for roughly 1.5 years.
Yes, Unusual LE & upgrades are also usual with HDFC. Like, someone I know went from ~1.5L limit to ~20L on Moneyback card 😀
Yes that’s true, i had got such limit enhancement from 1L to 8L on moneyback card with salary account long back, any way got upgrade from regalia with 14L limit to Infinia yesterday, accepted the card after redeeming points for amazon pay voucher through regalia smartbuy, and today smartbuy website is down for redemption, but i was not that happy as the card is no more exclusive and new super premium cards are the horizon and Infinia is on the verge of devaluation as we have seen with the moves from HDFC through out the COVID-19, I think this is the final nail in the coffin for Infina’s supremacy. HDFC might launch new SP cards as soon as RBI ban issue of cards to new users is revoked.
Sir my limit is stucked since 4 years no insta or jumbo loan offer appearing, usage and repayment is perfect still nothing 🙁
Any ideas
3l to 15 L
Plz suggest i have milinia with10+ lac limit should i try to directly upgrade into DCB OR Infinia..
My friend ,also a avid follower of your blogs , but doesn’t comment , he got upgrade offer from moneyback to infinia today…took it for 1 year on my recommendation
To all those who are getting super excited about the enhanced limit please take a step back and consider this – higher limit also comes with a higher risk of fraud (one can argue that we can cap the limit etc. etc…true but wait till you get to customer care for your resolution). And it is A NIGHTMARE to get a charge disputed through hdfc. Can you imagine they expect you to print a dipute form and physically mail it to Chennai for a dispute to be considered? I had 2-3 back to back such challenges and inspite of having the DCB for about 3 + years and with a 15l limit went ahead and canceled. Losing sleep over ZERO support is just not worth the benefits (which again have been watered down over the last 1-1.5 years). I’d rather have them get their act together before opting for any of their products again.
You can manually decrease the limit of your choice through HDFC net banking it takes hardly any time i generally keep my limits to around Rs 10000 only and enhance it when i need it, cancelling international transactions removes half of your headaches, as Indian websites need CVV as well as OTP to authorize a transaction, keeping safe your physical card is your responsibility any way transactions without pin (contact less transaction) risk is limited to only 2000 per day.
dude capping takes just a few secs with online banking, u can change it anytime. So if its more u can reduce it anytime as per ur usage but if ur CL itself is less and your usage cross 30% ratio it’ll adversly impact ur CIBIL, I feel its better to accept LE and modify it as per your need
I don’t think so most of us here have card limits in most of the card in 7 digit and heavy users. I have never faced a problem with any card issuer and there was fraud of Re1600 only once in Citibank which was resolved easily. Also there was some forex tx of USD 2 ik Stan C and they too gladly helped. HDFC too has a dispute form which can be filled and sent to them. So increased credit limit does not result to fraud albeit it may help in CIBIL score due to low utilisation.
Mine upgraded from regalia first to infinia.😀
What was your limit on Reagalia first. I’ve got a limit of 2,50,000 and got the option to upgrade to millenia card 🙁
What was your limit on regalia first ? And how old was your card ?
Hi
How, huge balnce in bank or huge spends
How much was limit and which banking ac is your
I have a limit of 11L on my Regalia First card but haven’t received any upgrade option yet. Any specific procedure to follow for upgrade? Thanks in advance. Also my RM isn’t helpful.
Hello siddharth.
Can i upgrade DCB to infina?
I got offer to upgrade regalia to privilege in September, I did not take it. In October last week, I got an offer to upgrade to DCB LTF. I accepted it without blinking an eye. So just wait a month or two. Btw, it seems huge devaluations are on the way
Thanks for sharing this. I have the offer in my NetBanking. However, I am a bit confused whether it is offered ltf. In the upgraded card details it shows annual fees as zero. However, in the notes it shows first year free and 10k plus taxes from second year. I currently hold a regalia with 13.5 limit.
Yes….. similar shown to me.
Its a unclear & complex communication by HDFC (as expected)….
Whether its LTF or FYF(1st year free only) is something that HDFC had left it hanging….
Can someone confirm with RM ?
Received upgrade from Regalia to Infinia. Confirmed with customer card it is LTF and Visa Infinite variant.
Best new year gift from HDFC 🙂
Also Customer care mentioned about 500 voucher if applied for upgrade over the call for upgrade so opted for on-call upgrade rather than via netbanking.
I checked with CC and they confirmed its LTF. They wanted me to opt it through phone banking for some reason and said I will not get it as LTF if I do it using net banking.. lol. They mentioned 500 lifestyle voucher for upgrading through phone banking also which I think is useless. I tried to confirm if this is LTF or FYF by asking them multiple times to check and confirm, and everytime they assured its LTF.
They’re sending this lifestyle voucher to all new cards it seems. It comes with min. spend of ~2.5K though.
I was upgraded to Infina in Dec 2018 and last month I got a voucher of INR 500 (can take a flipkart/ lifestyle voucher etc.)
Yes it is part of their limit increase offer. I too received the same.
Thank you for the article Siddharth . Got upgraded to Regalia (ltf)from moneyback . Confirmed with customer service that it is lifetime free. Keep up the good work. Your blog helped me a lot.
Thanks again.
I tried calling but no one is responding. Can you please share which nos did you call
I upgraded my Regalia to Infinia via the netbanking route. After that I called the customer support and they confirmed that it is LTF.
Even my journey with HDFC regalia first was erratic. I got it initially with just 40k limit. Then it was suddenly bumped up to 4.2L and now it’s currently at 5.75L. Sadly however, I haven’t yet received any card upgrade offers. Even my dad with regalia card with 7.75L limit hasn’t. We both are 3+ years users now.
I think old users are still not getting any offers!!
My RM also said I dnt hav an offer..
I have got the upgrade option from Regalia to DCB. But I already hold DCB since 3 years. I think HDFC is rolling out upgrades without putting any mind into it. Why would a person who already has a DCB upgrade to another DCB?
My DCB does not have any upgrade option, despite it having credit limit well upwards of 8L and me having preferred banking relationship with HDFC
I think Infinia upgrade is only for Regalia card holders with limit >8L. My regalia limit is little shy of 8L since I never really use it with DCB already being there
Interesting! I have a Regalia with a 7.8L limit and I was given the option to upgrade to DBC today! Interestingly few of my friends got the option to upgrade to Infinia directly from Regalia First with a limit of just 4l
Prateek
Can you explain how your friends got Infinia credit card upgrade against only 4 lac limit on Regalia first credit card
Now currently what is limit they got on Infinia credit Card after upgrade
Regds
Virak
I have regalia credit card which was upgraded 18months back from money-back card
I have limit of 340000 which got increased in August 2020
I have not received the limit enhancement offer nor the upgrade.😑
I have clubmil3s with a limt of 3.67 and I am getting offer of diners privilege. 1) is there any way to persuade the CC to give me DCB LTF offer? 2)is it worth upgrading to privelege card?
I want to know the same
Customer care can do anything. You can send the upgrade form and submit in branch if you want the update but this will be FYF only.
Check Sid article for comparison of privilege and clubmiles and if your use case fits privilege then upgrade through net banking.
@Sid You have mentioned it to be Lifetime Free but with HDFC footnotes showing only First Year Free that may be wrong
I have called customer care thrice to confirm, they all told me the same thing that its a life time free card you dont have to pay anything, also cleared that if there is any hidden charges or usage boundation they have said nothing as its completely free card once you got it its upto you if are using or not.
I have a salary account in HDFC since 2013, and had a Moneyback card with the limit of 5L, in past 6 months i hardly use it anywhere but i got the offer to upgrade the card to DCB, i have applied for it yesterday.
@sid thanks men, your blogs are super amazing and informative, keep it up buddy.
Whoever have got DCB or Infinia LTF upgrade, please mention whether you are Preferred/ Imperia customers of HDFC bank or not. This will help prospective super premium card seekers immensely.
Preferred definitely helps. Imperia is not necessary.
today got upgraded to infinia from regalia with same limit of 10 lakh with preferred account
Yes it’s written clearly in the notes below for DCB Regalia and Infinia, it shows first year free and fees respective plus taxes from second year.
I got an upgrade from Regalia to Infinia
My current limit is 2.5lac which I upgraded to 3 lac. Didn’t want higher limit. Super happy as it’s LTF
Do you have any other relationship with HDFC like home loan, auto loan , personal loan or salary account…
I have regalia with 6.96L credit limit but no upgrade nor LE.
I checked my credit card upgrade section and I am eligible for Diners black card. How can I know whether it’s life time free or not.
Having paid DCB with 5L. My wife having LTF DCB with 5.7L.
No upgarde to Infinia for both of us. No LE either.
Only limit enhancement for me which was there for 3-4 months. I just took it now. No free upgrades anywhere..
I received LE to 9,29,000/- yesterday. But I dont see the credit card upgrade offer. It still shows that you are not eligible.
Is it a given that if I have a limit of above 8 lacs, I am eligible for Infinia?
I am using DCB for past one year. My last year spends are above 11 lacs. Still, dont see any upgrade offers
I received LE to above 9 lacs yesterday. But I dont see the credit card upgrade offer. It still shows that you are not eligible.
Is it a given that if I have a limit of above 8 lacs, I am eligible for Infinia?
I am using DCB for past one year. My last year spends are above 11 lacs. Still, dont see any upgrade offers
Can suggest me.. Is there any Fuel benefit card available in HDFC bank!!
Hey Sid,
I have got this offer 2 days back. My Regalia card got a limit enhancement and Card upgrade offer to Infinia. In the upgrade summary they said the Annual Charges is 0. But in t&c it says annual charges for infinia waived for 1st year and later the annual charges will be charged as usual with a waiver of annual spends above 8L. Need to confirm offer in detail once the card is received.
Also while checking the website I couldn’t see the NPSL as a feature on Infinia. Did they revoked that feature now? Do you have any update.
NPSL here means you can ask them for a higher limit, usually upto 2X and they can give it temporarily.
How can we request for temporary higher limit on Infinia.
By calling Infinia support.
But Sid they have removed this feature from their website. Usually they give this as a highlight feature. But now all of a sudden ut disappeared.
A clear indication, something higher than Infinia is coming up. Infinia now = Regalia
Hey it’s LTF I had confirmed for my card upgrade to infinia
I got the upgrade offer from Regalia to DCB. My limit on Regalia is 15.6 lacs. I have accepted the offer for now. If DCB acceptability becomes an issue, I hope HDFC offers a role back option.
I got a text message from bank yesterday stating offer to limit enhancement and upgrade to Infinia but it’s only 1st year free. Can anyone confirm whether they got Infinia LTF? If yes, how?
I think the author got the wrong information. The upgrade offer to Infinia and Diner cards are not fee for lifetime it ia only for first year.
While upgrading it shows no annual fee but if you read carefully the notes below the card upgrade section. It is clearly mentioned that only first year annual fee is free and in subsequent years it will be waived off on 8L spend annually or 10000+ GST (for Infinia)
But seems many RM’s confirmed about the LTF offer on these cases.
LTF offers expired on 31.12. I got upgraded to DCB from Reglia 2 months back. My limit is still 3L but my card is LTF. I raised the issue of acceptance since I don’t live in a metro and also asked for an upgrade to Infinia.
I confirmed with customer care team both the preferred helpdesk as well as premium card care team, both confirmed the Infinia card will be LTF and also no Spend based criteria applicable on the new card.
And they mentioned offer is provided based on good relationship since 10yrs.
Regarding the notes in the bottom, that is predefined on bottom on net banking page and it remains the same whether fees shown as 0 or 10000.
take the card as FYF , when the renewal date approaches next year , call them and ask again
I am HDFC salary customer from 11 years and now in preferred banking from 3 years . Week back my RM called and said will be upgraded my regalia credit card to infinia life time free card with 10L credit limit .
My existing regalia CC with 8L credit limit .
Had used / upgraded all cc from hdfc .. platinum all miles , regalia
Excited about infinia card now 🙂
Can I get add on card for inifinia for my wife too ??
In Dec 2018 I had received an upgrade offer to LTF Infinia and on bottom of the webpage it was mentioned fee of INR 10000+GST; customer care confirmed it was LTF.
It’s been 2 years I have not been charged any annual fee.
Could you guide me to the HDFC Link where the offer details are mentioned?
Got upgrade to Infinia.
Any idea if they deliver upgraded card immediately or after ban is revoked?
They are delivering upgraded card immediately.
Hello,
Anyone received the upgraded card yet ? My upgraded card has been put on HOLD in physical dispatch.
Upgraded on 2Jan2021, reflected on my internet banking on 4th, Transferred Card registration accepted by HDFC online banking.
Checked this today with branch on11th Jan2021, and it is still on HOLD and not yet dispatched.
Tried to get in touch with Customer Card, but not way it offers a connection to a customer care executive.
Cheers
Typo errors,,,,
Tried to get in touch with Customer Care but no way I could get connected to a customer care executive…
What about existing holders of infinia? I just got this message…
Gentle Reminder!
You are eligible for waiver of annual fee on your Credit Card xxxx.
To claim it, just spend Rs.265796 by 21-Mar-21
Details: resu.io/RKLWXYXNHB5Z
T&C
I see major devaluation of Infinia and DCB approaching since they are easily distributing these cards to all medium-high spenders
Many people seem to be confused whether to opt for Infinia or DB. In my view if you think you can occasionally exhaust 15K incremental points limit then go for Infinia, else DB’s 7.5K is usually sufficient. In case of paid versions, its easier to reach DB’s 5L than Infinia’s 8L for fee waiver. But if the fee is charged then there’s no bonus pts in DB. Note that DB has monthly and annual milestone rewards that Infinia doesn’t. Also it has lot more 2X-10X partners with separate cappings. And with DB one doesn’t need to carry extra priority pass when traveling abroad, it’s lounge list is also quite adequate. Infinia has greater air insurance over than DB. When it comes to acceptability Visa is good, even DB is widely accepted online and offline. There’s hardly any outlet or restaurant I have come across where DB didn’t work, it works practically everywhere in cities. Most merchants only know of Visa, MC, Amex and even Rupay. They intentionally discourage Amex due to high MCC but many aren’t even aware that DB is a separate network, it works on their swipe machines and they unknowingly pay higher MCC than Visa or MC. Havent faced acceptability issues with DB.
I would slightly not agree with this.
Went to make a purchase of 1L in a jewelry store. Tried paying with DCB, they refused to accept saying too much charges. First said no to credit cards and then accepted only master or Visa card for 50% of the amount. Rest had to use debit card. ote: I had actually paid 40K in the same store the day before, and end of the day settlement they observed Diners had higher charges compared to Visa/MC. So they didn’t accept diners the next day.
Got that, but my point is DB works on their swipe machine, just that it has higher MDR than Visa or MC, which few are aware. This is unlike Amex which doesnt even work on many swipe machines. And jewelers, esp local or smaller ones, are one category who are most circumspect about payment options and try to discourage credit cards altogether unless you pay up additional fee. The other category is perhaps vehicle dealers who either refuse crcards or ask for a fee. I have been comfortably using Diners Premium and later Black for 7yrs in various cities, had just couple of places with small value spends where the machine declined diners.
I agree with that. I think diners acceptability is not an issue. Never encountered that issue in Bangalore & patna, most retailers are not even aware about diners, they will simply swipe & accept(Rupay machines will work) . Same story for online. Only advantage of infinia is higher 10X limit (15K), but I struggle sometimes to reach even 7.5K points on DCB, 15K is needed only 1/2 time a year which can be offset by collecting instant vouchers on DCB.
Yes, I agree with you on this. But in Bangalore itself I have had few acceptance issues. I would say around 5% but that has happened for few High value transactions. They are at rtiz Carlton, dell online, truffles etc.
But yes, those are just part of the 5% I mentioned. Just unlucky that some of these were large transactions.
Probably you guys are not using CC enough. Been stuck with DCB for more than 2 yrs now, I see lot of DCB falures every now & then. Even HDFC’s own payzapp stopped accepting Diners for bharat QR payments. Then lot of shops not having HDFC EDCs fail. HPSEB official website has HDFC payment gateway but DCB doesn’t work. Any merchant who is aware of Diners high MDR rate will disable it.
What I can say is that I truelty agree with Siddharth that HDFC might lauch a super premium card higher than Infinia and DCB and push all the true HNIs to it, and then make Infinia and DCB just like regalia (considering Regalia is no more a super premium card)
Otherwise I don’t have any issues as I already have both Infinia and DCB LTF since 2014…
Damn! I have some 80K points on my DCB and unable to use it for travel for now.
will hdfc offer those new super premium cards as ltf if having very good relation with rm (earlier he has given ltf infinia and dcb to me ).
Please define “true HNIs”. I am curious.
I echo the same concerns as above; the notes clearly say that this is first-year free, and second-year onwards I’ll be charged 10k+taxes with spending < 8L.
Notes for people who asked questions in other comments:
– Have a Moneyback card with 8L limit
– Not a premium/privileged banking customer; standard user with no fees
– Have not had a LE for 6+ months
I'll probably just use as much as I can till end of offer period if this is indeed not LTF, and then either transfer to a lower version / cancel the card.
Don't have an RM so don't know who to ask whether this is LTF or not.
I used the new HDFC “Mailbox” feature to send them a message, and the confirmed that it is indeed LTF.
Hi D,
How that HDFC mailbox features work?
Any link from hdfc website.
You probably need an HDFC bank account for that. I had used Accounts (on the left side selection list) -> Enquire -> Mailbox, within my Accounts tab. There’s a red “NEW” label on the Enquire button to make things easier to find.
I have 11L limit but still in regalia. Anyway to upgrade?
I was a Imperia customer then shifted to Shimla and became preferred “No Imperia RM here”.
I got the offer for INFINIA upgrade on my REGALIA. My travel was like this:-
DCM “LTF” 9lac > DCB “Paid” 11lac > REGALIA “Paid” 11.8lac > INFINIA “FYF” 11.8lac
CC said the card was LTF but RM said its FYF. I have diverted most spendings on AXIS Ace CC/Amex Platinum Reserve & wont come back to HDFC because of statement credit value now being 0.3 instead of 0.5.
Ajai…. I upgraded to Imperia in Shimla itself n that too 2 years back. And now I ain’t even in Shimla but in a village near Theog & continuing imperia from branch here. U need to chase this with your RM. Most of HDFC bank RMs are useless and are only there as MF distributors. However let me add that you are not missing anything here except maybe a free locker! Their Imperia is the most useless premium program I have ever come across.
Any other better HNI banking programs you know of ? We have a Imperia relationship with HDFC as well, but they still charge us for our credit cards, checked with RM for LTF conversion of our cards after these offers were released, was told its not possible.
What are u looking for in your “HNI” program? If it is only free credit card, take IndusInd. Sorry, I don’t fit into HNI definition so can’t recommend. HNI = 10 crores plus surplus, cash.
I think Citigold is best
I guess it all depends what you want out of them. HSBC & DB suit me better
Thx for the info but I have taken up AXIS burgundy instead. I did talk to a lot of HDFC people but they told me that for Imperia I will need to shift my main account back to Delhi and have another linked account in Shimla.
I would definitely advise you to checkout Axis burgundy due to which I got Axis SELECT CC “LTF” but also an excellent Axis burgundy debit card with free bookmyshow tickets among other things. I often go to Theog due to JCO “Apples” being situated there.
Axis I won’t take, ever. Their branch near home is already stuffed with Govt. accounts so they don’t bother with regular customers. And they are MF distributors there, not bankers.
HDFC people did tell me the same thing about accounts to be shifted to Chandigarh for Imperia but then i raised & escalated the query & finally it was offered in Shimla itself without transfer of base branch. Infinia is the only reason i bank with HDFC.
Hi Ajai
I have accounts in a tier 3 city and I am still an imperia. Get your account mapped to a virtual RM.
I have HDFC Regalia LTF card what is more worth moving to Infinia or DCB?
I too got an card upgrade option after 1.5 years almost from Diners Clubmiles to Diners Millenia with the same limit and probably its LTF. Should i go for it? Is switching from clubmiles to millenia a downgrade?
Millenia is worth to get or should I wait more for another upgrade?
Don’t do it. Check Millennia review.
This is a problem with having Clubmiles/premium. Ask manual upgrade for privilege and you could jump from there.
Thanks Siddharth. Okay I will see if manually it can be done. I will try my hands to get Diners Privilege Card..
I checked with the coustomer care and said that they are unable to upgrade to Diners Privilege or Regalia. Should I stay with clubmiles now as devaluation seems to be next step or should i downgrade/upgrade to millenia.
In case they discontinue clubmiles card in near future will they offer me good options for upgrade
When your card comes for renewal, they will send the next comparable card. You can hold on if you are into airmile transfers and wait to see how all this plays out in next few months.
Thanks a lot. I will wait to see how this proceeds not getting into millenia for now.
same situation for me, keeping clubmiles for now and will see if they roll out better upgrades later.
I have a very basic Money-back ltf card and surprised to have the offer to upgrade to Infinia ltf. I had received offer to upgrade to Regalia First previously but I did not opt for it as it was not ltf. I don’t use the card much (50k per annum spends) but do have a good credit limit (>11L). I am classic banking customer and have a relationship with bank for around 8 years. So I think it is being offered for credit limit criteria only.
I got upgrade offer from regalia first (credit limit : 7 lacs) to diners black. My goal is to get infinia. Should I take this upgrade or wait for upgrade offer to Infinia. Because I’ve heard that diners black holders generally don’t get upgraded to infinia. Is it true?
I too am in a dilemma in this aspect. If i take DCB upgrade, would it be possible to upgrade to Infinia in future or not?
As per new offers as per CC statement, the 10x RP is only on flight bookings and not on hotel bookings.
I dont think so. The smartbuy page clearly mentions 10x RP even on hotels for infinia and diners black
Yeah i know it does. I wrote “as per their CC statement”. Have you checked yours?
Oh yes! Even my statement doesn’t have the hotels part for 10x l. Also flipkart 3x is not there in the statement. Weird.
Oh! I’ve good number of points on my diners black that I’ve not redeemed. Do you think point devaluation is around the corner? Want to use up my reward points some how but due to no travel couldn’t do that, in the worst case will buy vouchers at 0.5rs/point reward rate if second round of devaluation is around the corner!
Point devaluation cannot be on the cards of the hdfc management right now. It is because they are losing an opportunity to acquire new customers right now due to rbi circular & anyone doesn’t have an idea when rbi will allow hdfc to start its applications for new customers.
Due to this, they will surely not want to loose their current cardholders, hence low probability they will devalue any of their cc or its reward points.
Got upgrade from regalia first to Infinia..limit was 6.85 n now increased to 9.35..account- preferred
Mother got upgrade to DCB from regalia.. account- senior citizen
do you have a salary account in hdfc?
If there is confusion about the fees just email CC you will get an written confirmation, as per my experience when it reads Annual Fees 0.00 its lifetime free same thing was showing up when i upgraded to Regalia few years back.
Hi
I have regalia card and I have been upgraded to dinner black but not limit enhancement
Also dinner cash back/ reward is 5x and even during promotion it’s been caped to 7500 points per month
I am holding a LTF regalia with 8L limit. Got a LE yesterday to 10L. And the infinia upgrade today. Again as per RM its LTF. hope it stays same.
Imperia customer here since 3 years, holding 12l DCB no limit enhancement since 1.5 year and no upgrade available, used the card for 10 l + in last 7-8 months, weird ways of HDFC continues.
Thanks Sid for this article. Would not have checked it without this post.
Logged in and checked for upgrade and my Regalia First was eligible for DCB upgrade. Have just done it and now waiting for delivery of the card.
After reading a lot about the confusing foot notes in upgradation section for Infinia, I contacted my RM who has confirmed that Infinia is indeed being offered LTF. I am currently holding Regalia and my account is preferred category.
A day back had got CLE message to 10.3L and today saw purgation option in netbanking. However, have taken the RM route for upgradation. RM has confirmed a 500 voucher too on upgradation.
Just to give an idea below is the sequence of CLE and Upgrades
“>2017 – Regalia First (Paid) > 2018 -Regalia LTF > 2019 – Regalia CLE > 2020 – Regalia CLE” and now Infinia.
Interestingly RM has confirmed that my autopay set up for Red giraffe rent pay will automatically transfer to new CC once activated.
I am holding a LTF Regalia with 10.2 Lakhs limit. Got a Infinia upgrade today. Emailed Customer Service for written confirmation for LTF status on Infinia Upgrade. Hoping to get conformation for LTF status with out annual spending of 8 Lakhs
Do they offer upgrades for co-branded cards? I have HDFC IOCL with 4L limit but never got an upgrade offer.
No, they usually don’t
+1 I got this offer 2 days ago for Regalia LTF to Infinia LTF upgrade and took it happily. I was told that this was based on my existing credit limit which is quite high.
What happens to the milestone benefits of we opt for upgrade. Example if you have spent 4lacs ytd and have a milestone benefit of 10k points upon reaching spend of 5 lacs. Will the 4lacs ytd spend rollover to new card and account for milestone benefit for upgraded card?
Regalia has milestone benefits upon reaching 5 lacs and 8 lacs spends.
Gone!
Hey Sid my Regalia anniversary year ended in Nov 2020 and i crossed 8 lacs spend. Yet to receive the 5000 bonus milestone points. Now i have DCB upgrade option? Would i receive the bonus points to new card? or thats gone too??
That’s tricky. Might need to check with support. Usually old cards become inactive post transfer.
Hi Sid
After seeing your article on the up gradation of cards by HDfC I looked in to my Bank account and got my Regalia upgraded to Infinia for LTF.
I got SC ultimate card upgraded basis by Manhattan card for 5k joining feed but with 6k rewards points as you know 1 Reward point is equal to 1rs
Basis my old Regalia card with 8lakhs limit got LTF of Yes First Exclusive LTF
Love your articles and and guidance keep it up and you rock Sid
Hi, I have got an upgrade to Visa Infinia Intl from Regalia with new limit of 15L from 14.83L earlier. Its LTF and existing points will be carried forward @50%.
I only got the offer of Credit limit enhancement from 3 lac to 3.6 lacs. I have REGALIA FIRST.
Same here
I am not sure what HDFC is up to, seriously. On one end they upgrade cards of relatively new customers and on the other hand they don’t upgrade the cards of the customers who have been loyal to them for decades. And their so called “parameters”, trust me, are non-existent. There are no parameters and it seems completely random. I’ve held the DCB for almost 5 years now, starting from a credit limit of around 5L mark and now at 14.55L but still no invite yet.
That’s very very strange.
Even my RM says the same as he himself can’t believe it. He says am through on all parameters but he’s not sure why I am not receiving the invite.
So I got an offer to upgrade my Regalia to DCB but they want me to pay the 10k joining fee!
So I just got an limit enhancement from 8.45L to 10.45L.
That made me eligible for FYF Infinia (I got a call from HDFC CC). I would take upgrade only on LTF. Any idea on how to get it? RMs are useless i feel.
Looking at people being moved away from Regalia series means great changes to Regalia cards imo.
@Siddharth: Not very strange, same case with me, DCB with 14.5 Lakhs limit, along with a large account with HDFC and Imperia account as well. Still did not get any upgrade offers, at least HDFC should have made my DCB Lifetime free but got nothing and people with moneyback and Regalia are directly getting Infinai LTF. HDFC must not have spent a lot of money on their silly algorithm.
I am sorry @Rohit but I took some solace from your post that I wasn’t alone in my feeling of being let down by HDFC despite being a loyal customer. I heard that this was purely to woo some people into spending more by giving them the illusion of exclusivity. That’s why regular spenders like you and me are left alone from the upgrades.
Pl approach your RM you may get it for sure
You are 100% correct.
I have also received the offer, which I lapped up immediately.
Any possibility to upgrade from Infinia paid version to LTF?
I tried, I failed.
Though my DCB was not LTF, i was offered a LE and not asked for a fee this time around. Did not cross 8L spending for sure. How can i check my annual spends? Also, Can i check if i got upgraded to LTF card?
5L for DCB. You may call DCb support. They can tell anniversary spend #.
Even I spoke to my RM as well as CC customer care and they denied LTF on my Infinia CC with 13 L limit. Looks like this offer is only for exiting Regalia LTF to Infinia LTF.
Same 🙁
Iam a preferred customer, I got offer to upgrade from DC premium to DC privilege and not for DCB although my credit limit is 11 lakh
Though my DCB was not LTF, i was offered a LE and not asked for a fee this time around. Did not cross *L spending for sure. How can i check annual spends? Also, Can i check if i git upgraded to LTF card?
The problem in upgrading from diners version to infinia is the points are not carry forwardedo. my rm told me that the points will not be carry forward to infinia if i upgrade from diners black. i must consume the same.. is someone has upgraded from diners black to infinia. and in what ratio ur points are shifted or not. thanks in advance
Not true.
Your RM is a nitwit.
I got upgraded from DCB to infinia and points got carried over in 1:1 ratio
From Diners Club black to Infinia? Are you an Imperia customer or preferred customer?
Was it automatic upgrade from netbanking or you had to follow up with the RM?
Thanks
This is the problem with HDFC in general. Most employees don’t know their own rules. They will keep confusing you. Customer care will try to get rid of you by giving arbitrary explanations. Surprisingly, RM is in the same boat too.
Yes HDFC is increasing the credit limits.
But I am not getting infenia upgrade offer.
Same here, got upgraded to infinia ltf from regalia. Annual fees mentioned as 0.0 and reward points transfer rate at 50%. Preferred customer with existing limit of 1125000
Hi,
Did it happen immediately or it took some time? I applied for upgrade to DCB under this offer but didnt receive any confirmation email or SMS. Appreciate if you can update on this.
You will not receive confirmation. By the time i posting this you might already have received the card or alteast last four digits. For me, yet to receive physical
How long it takes to upgrade? I checked I had the offer to upgrade to DCB in my netbanking. I clicked all the right buttons but I didnt get any confirmation email or message from HDFC nor I can see that offer anymore in my netbanking.
Same here, no email or sms confirmation. But took a screenshot of it.
Thanks for the great post Siddharth. I had got upgrade offer to DCB from regalia first with a limit of 5.9L. But I am not sure to take it now due to it being Diners. Also would like to empty my current reward redemptions as the conversion says its 30%,which I believe is a loss of 70%. Also applied for limit enhancement and hoping to get infinia after limit is 6.5L plus above
You will not lose anything in points. Go for it. Infinia will come only if limit is > 8 lacs
the conversion is 30% because the value of one point of regalia first is 0.30Re while that of DCB is 1Re. Effectively the value of the points remains the same after the conversion, not the number of points. You wouldn’t lose any value of points on upgrading.
Guys, 30% is kinda low if u look at the rewards catalog product value. For example if u look at max voucher,
for 1k voucher u need 4000 points of Regalia first (or) 2000 points in Diners black, which translates to 50% difference. So i am planning to redeem my points and then upgrade.
It won’t matter. Value of RP remains same
Have a doubt!, DCB life time free means you still need to maintain minimum spend of 5 Lakhs per annum to avoid next year membership fees, please correct if its true. Thanks
No. LTF means LTF, no minimum spend. Mine is LTF from beginning.
My Regalia card is having 6L+ limit however i don’t see any upgrade offer in net banking. Don’t know whether i will get it or not.
Has any DCB holders got Infinia LTF offer?
One of my friend got DCB LTF to infinia FYF. His limit was close to 9L
I already have Infinia Card but its not LTF, how should i get LTF version?
HDFC has also started faster bonus points for amazon smartbuy – dec points were posted on 2nd Jan itself.
Second I now see 2x points for dining even on swiggy/zomato and dominos online
Only the December points though. October and November are still pending.
You are mistaken. Only flights, hotels, and instant vouchers 10x smartbuy points are being posted in next month basis but if there are amazon and flipkart transactions via smartbuy, they will take 90 days. Confirmed with cc.
Amazon and flipkart points cannot be posted very next month. In case of cancellation/reversal of transaction, points are not posted so they take good amount of time.
Though, 28th Jan transaction 5X bonus for Amazon was posted on 30th Jan 2020.
I checked I have been upgraded from Regalia to Infinia, with no annual fee for first year.
Hi Sid
I too have the offer to upgrade to Infina. My understanding is that as annual fee is mentioned as 0. It is LYF.
The foot notes are only for those for have some fee amount mentioned.
Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Also from the comments, it is better to upgrade via PhoneBanking than NetBanking as you can confirm LTF with customer service and get Rs. 500/- voucher as well.
I got the upgrade voucher for LE from netbanking. In fact lot more options that the Lifestyle voucher.
Hi Sid, I also got an upgrade from Regalia to Infinia along with LE to 9.3 lakhs. But afaik card was mentioned as first year free. Would confirm it with customer care.
Sid, given an option should I chose Visa variant or MC?? Is there any visible advantage. Couldn’t find an answer to this anywhere.
Thank you for the support you give to CC enthusiasts. Kudos!!
“given an option should I chose Visa variant or MC?? Is there any visible advantage. Couldn’t find an answer to this anywhere.” – Look closely under Infinia reviews & you’d find the answer in detail
Received offer from club miles to privilege but will be losing airline transfer ratio from 1:1 to 2:1 so thinking of holding out.
As my club miles card is expiring next year too and as club miles is not sourced now, so thinking maybe they will be issuing privilege to club miles users. Will it work like that ?
Hello Siddharth,
New HDFC Diners Club Black Card upgraded November Month 2020 again they given upgrade option in net banking January 1, 2020 New Diners Club Black Staff international Card, confirmed with HDFC customer care they are informed me sir this next level card 1 reward points value equal 1 rupee and if you take any loan for this card when you’re closing no foreclosure and interest charges so I upgraded now I can see in net banking New Diners Club Black Staff Intl.
I have regalia card with 4.5l credit limit. ITR of 15L. Don’t see any upgrade offer yet. Even for credit limit. Reaching RM has become a difficult task in recent days(preferred acc). I would love to have DCB or infinia but I’m not eligible yet I guess.
Be careful before u upgrade ur card to Infinia or any other hdfc credit card they have mentioned its 1st year free 2nd year onwards if u don’t spend equal to 8 lacs or more ur charged annual fee of Rs10000 + gst
Also their executives dont disclose annual fee factor when to apply for one
I hv personally experienced such issues with hdfc
Clearly a devaluation is coming for these cards.
A select few will get upgraded to yet-to-be-launched Ultra Premium Cards. As HDFC can’t get new card holders, they will first offer the UPCs to existing customers.
Not showing anything in netbanking for me. I didn’t received any LE from last 5 years. Even though i spend regularly in the range for 6-7L per year from last 5 years.
Any suggestions what can be done? Rm is useless
Will the upgrade affects any offers on my Regalia which are yet to be fulfilled. I am suppose to get 2K vouchers for Nov and Dec for the spend based offer.
Any clarification on this will be very useful in deciding.
On the same boat. My RM said that I will get the voucher.
Same case as yours. Supposed to get 2K vouchers for Dec 2020.
Spoke to CC, they asked me to wait till I get all the pending vouchers and callback for upgrade. CC mentioned that voucher wont be delivered if the card status changes. I plan to wait till then for upgrade
I got upgraded from 14L Regalia to Infinia LTF today with an annual spending of 5L
So devaluation coming in the next 6 months? That’s just sad. Why does HDFC keep doing this.
I think the bigger question is should we start redeeming DCB/Infinia reward points @INR 0.5 per RP for Amazon vouchers? These buggers will devalue overnight and wont even give a notice period like Amex does.
lol, yeah. I would rather suggest to avail the Club Vistara transfer offers when bonus points offers shows up. Would definitely be valued more than 50ps even after devaluation by CV (if happens) + comes with nice 3yr validity.
Currently Singapore airlines is running 15% bonus till 16th January on more than 10000 points transfer batch. So if you have plans to fly international in year or so then you can check that too.
I have redeemed my 20,000 points for cash Rs 4000 on Regalia. It’s now possible to convert points to cash
What a waste!
Waiting for club vistara bonus sales
Any idea any when is it?
Looking at posts, people are getting jittery over potential downgrade of RPs after this big round of upgrades. HDFC maintained the same RP value on Infinia and DB all along, playing only with the monthly caps or incremental X during difficult times. There have been upgrade rounds in past too, LTF or otherwise. Even now the upgrades are pretty targeted, mostly people with high-existing-limits or high-spend history or high-Cibil or a long-time relationship, etc and have long complained of not being upgraded though they really belonged to this category. This action was overdue so comes as a new year gift.
Its also likely that HDFC have added lot of customers at the base of the pyramid in past 1-2 yrs, giving enough to push some mid-high level ones to top of the pyramid. HDFC been hit by RBI decision to halt new cards may have also prompted some of these actions. Notice even the various off-season offers flowing by. Plus aggressive competition from other card issuers, all vying for this very segment. So best way to retain high-value/threshold Regalia-like customers is upgrade their cards from ~1% to 3.3% variant.
I doubt there’ll be a dilution soon.
Or still better, redeem your RP before RIP.
My journey with HDFC – Salary Account since 2015 -> Moneyback card Since 2015 -> Regalia First in 2018 JAN – > Regalia in 2019 JAN (CL – 8.09L , got couple of limit increase)-> Classic customer followed by Preferred in 2020 -> Got upgrade to Infinia now(with CL 10L +).
Its good to see the same happening with so many folks but obvious devaluation is On the Cards for sure.
@Saurabh… Has being Classic/Preffered customer helped you in getting Limit Enhancement/Upgrade offers? plz share your experience.
For infinia upgrade, I thought so…as I was just upgraded from classic to preferred last month and then I got infinia upgrade. But it appears it’s not totally correct as so many people got the upgrade.
Limit enhancement kept happening at regular intervals – independent of my normal/classic/preferred status.
My Clubmiles limit was increased from 1.5 to 3.28. And card upgraded to Privilage. I have a Preferred account.
With this amount of new cards being issued, the devaluation of DCB and Infinia is imminent.
Extremely disappointing for the existing cardholders on both levels, the devaluation, plus the annual fees we’re bound to pay.
Yeah ofcrz you people enjoyed the cream already 🙂
Yes, I got a call from the branch about the Upgrade to Visa Infinia card. I asked whether they will pay the annual fee for fun. The reply is YES. Then they said, HDFC offers lifetime free Visa Infinia to select customers. I have applied for it. (from Coimbatore)
It’s not true. No such upgrading or limit enhancement facility is extended by HDFC to me.
Anything for existing non-LTF Infinia to LTF Infinia?
Hope now Yes Bank also starts Upgrading to private card as LTF
Yes Private Prime maybe.. But I dont think they would do in this scale.
I have been using HDFC credit card for more than 15 years now. Started with HDFC Gold > Platinum > Regalia. Current limit of 18L. Imperia customer from last 2 years, Preferred customer before that. My RM seems pretty useless. I still have not got any invite for card upgrade.
I got upgrade option from reg fisrt to regalia. Called cc to confirm whether it’s surely ltf. They told me it’s free for sure. So upgraded instantly. Waiting 👍
Hi Sid!
I’m sure many people must also be having this question,
I’ve got an Upgrade Offer from Regalia to Diners Black and in the notes it’s mentioned that the second year onwards it’s chargeable as 10K plus GST
How do we know it’s LTF??
Thanks in advance
Pls check the updated article with clarity on that.
Recently on 1s Jan I got upgraded to FYF DCB (by manually sending documents to Chennai.) That card yet to be delivered but reflecting in account. After reading LTF offer here I tried checking if there are any offers available and I saw another DCB offer available to me against my new DCB card. I called up CC and they confirmed my existing DCB card if first year free but new offer which I got is LTF. However there was 50% deduction of rewards points from existing DCB points idk why. Anyway I took the offer and new card should be getting delivered soon.
HDFC probably ran the eligibility script before your manual upgrade and made it live now with some delay. So you shouldn’t loose 50% points on existing DCB if the upgrade is processed by someone with common sense.
I’m a 1.5 year old Regalia First user with 2.5L limit. Just got an upgrade to Infinia with 9.4L credit limit. The RM mentioned it is LTF.
Anand…are u a classic/preferred customer…or a normal one?
Hi Sid, I always see good things being written by you about HDFC cards – I understand the reward points program is good but have you observed the degradation in customer support like anything? Have you recently tried to connect with a human using their CC IVR? Its huge effort and i spent over 20 mins to reach a human in CC They claim 24 hours CC @ 61606161. Whatever option i choose – its being redirected to Eva – the bot. Its frustrating. No matter how much value the rewards points give us we Indians only get thrilled with the same and forgive the dirt cheap service these banks provide. Hope you point out the same some day.
Agree, support is non-existent if you don’t hold one of their super premium cards.
Checked with my RM. He said Infinia is only first year free
For around 10 years I have MoneyBack card which has no real benefits in its reward program and I am just holding it for usual 10% bank offers in most of the shopping websites.
I see Diners club lifetime free is showing in my netbanking section. Can u help me with clarifying these qns?
1. What is the reward value for each point earned thru Diners black card?
2. Thru smart buy, I see 10X rewards for insta vouchers? So, what is the % value of these 10x. Because currently, I get 5% cashback for any gift vouchers thru normal card.
3. Because it is lifetime free, will I still be getting all benefits?
Prasath you should opt for diners. You will get much better returns compared to moneyback. You will same 5% cashback but with higher limit from 1000 to 2000.
I am answering your questions as per my understanding.
1. 1 point = 1 INR
2. In general there is max reward point cap of 7500 points in a calender month for 10X catagory (i guess) ,
U will get 5 points on a 150rs spend so you can calculate points u’ll get on your spending, if its fall under the catagory of 10X increase the points 10 times.
3. Yes, all the customers will get the same benifits.
1 point is not 1 INR on all redemptions
~ 5 RP per Rs. 150 spent.
~ 10x value is 33% RP. It’s cash value depends on how u spend RP
~ No benefits on free (!!!) variant.
This is a let down for existing Infinia customers. What is the best way to ask for converting card to LTF ?
Let me also know in case its possible to convert !
call customer care and ask them , if they are willing , do let us know , we will also try
Try with requesting for change from MasterCard version to Visa Variant or Visa Variant to MasterCard due to acceptability issue of the card.
This trick will not work without having proof/photo of either variant not accepted sign/display.
This trick worked for me and just now received confirmation stating that my fee variant card is converted to LTF. See below email confirmation received just now.
Dear Mr. XXXX,
This is in continuation to our interim response dated xxxxxx regarding your HDFC Bank credit card account.
We are glad to inform you that, we confirm having converted your Infinia credit card bearing number XXXXXX as life time free from annual membership fee. We trust the above given information clarifies to your satisfaction.
We request you to continue usage on your HDFC Bank credit card for all your shopping and entertainment needs, thereby providing us more opportunities to serve you.
I didnt have hdfc savings account earlier, had infinia though. RM mentioned that if I open savings account, even basic one, infinia will become LTF. And I did, now it should be LTF
Hi
Currently I carry HDFC Regalia Credit card with limit above 8.5 lakh.today I got Regalia to infinia card upgrade offer from HDFC and accepted.
Can some one explain about no pre set limit on Infinia.
Regards
Deepak Yadav
Rewari ,Haryana
NPSL is actually misleading phrase – Based on your spending & payment pattern, Infinia customer care will increase your credit limit temporarily by up to 2x if you request them. Would only take place if you are already spending close to your full credit limit or expect a sudden spurt in expenditure which “might’ take your outstanding past your CL.
Hello siddharth,
Does it make sense to upgrade to DCB LTF from regalia LTF considering the acceptability issues? I have MRCC, Platinum Travel, Axis Flipkart, ICICI Amazon Pay. I tend to spend much on Amex cards though and where it is not accepted, Axis Flipkart card serves the purpose.
Same here, got upgraded to Infinia ltf from Regalia. Annual fees mentioned is 0.0 and reward points transfer rate at 50%. My existing credit limit was 975000, and spends were 8L+/year for the last 4 years that i’ve had my Regalia.
Hope they don’t devalue Infinia now! 🙂
I too got a call from my RM (preferred banking) today, saying that they are giving out Infinia LTF in bulk – she upgraded me from Regalia to Inifinia with CL of 12L+ (got CLE from 10 L to 12 L also yesterday).
I am an HDFC preferred customer and I Had been with HDFC for last 10 years or so. Currently I have been holding the HDFC regalia first CC since last 2 years. I was after my RM last 2 years for an upgrade to high end card, but had success with only option of LE every six months.
Today Morning I got a call from my RM and he informed me that I am eligible for both LTF Infinia upgrade as well as marginal LE increase. I was exited to hear the offer and gave my consent for same. I have now got the new limit of 15L.
I am currently out of station but my RM said he will arrange to send the card to nearest branch and also will arrange for priority pass delivery. Really a surprise new year gift from HDFC. Fingers crossed for card devaluation.
Guys need your help.
Current status: Regalia LTF sice 2016. Limit 7.1 lacs. Imperia customer. 12 years old relationship.
Received a DCB LTF offer. Should I upgrade given the fact that I want an Infinia LTF and acceptability of Diners is an issue.
I got 100% LE on DCB, but no upgrade available.
Upgrade to what? HDFC considers DB and Infinia as the same category.
Infinia is one up tier compared to DCB though on different platforms.
On hdfc website itself, they place Infinia and DB together in one tier/category i.e. Super Premium. All their other cards are listed in various other categories. So as per hdfc you can only get max ‘upgrade’ to either DB or Infinia.
People may have individual views as to which variant is better, but DB to Infinia or vice versa is not considered by the bank as upgrade.
Thats a narrative HDFC has build. Actually they don’t consider these equal. Evident from RP limits, invite only etc. They want us to believe us so simply because Diners is their gold mine and they don’t want ppl to move out of Diners platform.
As long as they continue sending better offers on DB than Infinia, am happy with DB. I anyway cant make the 15K monthly cap, and barely come close to the 7.5K in most months.
I have Business Regalia Credit Card. My limit was 5.5L limit, today I got option to increase limit to 9.3L which I did. So now how can I get Infinia? Will I get upgrade offer automatically or should I write letter to Chennai office or Nodal officer? What do you suggest?
Hi bro please contact to Hdfc customer care number mentioned at backside of your card. They will confirm if you can get offer for lifetime free upgrade, I did the same & upgraded to Infinia from Regalia
Yes, I did receive this upgrade and checked with customer care and RM if it is LTF, both confirmed, and I happily upgraded from my recently upgraded Regalia First (which was issued after they moved me to Preferred category 2 years ago).
I got a offer to upgrade LTF infinia from regalia. I am using HDFC card from last 12+ years,
I am seeing the infinia upgrade option in netbanking but TnC metion only first year free and 10k per year from next year onwards. RM is useless. Which is the customer care number to call for confirmation on whether this is LTF
Observing only FYF to infinia from regalia ( 11 lakh limit )
Got mine upgraded to Infinia.. thanks for the heads up! I was at Regalia initially
I got LTF HDFC Infinia Upgrade from HDFC Regalia.
It was based on Spends and other relationship with the bank like Premium car loan and etc.,
Limit : Rs.9L
Mine got upgraded from Regalia First Visa Signature to Infinia Visa Infinite today. Earlier my CL was 12 Lacs now its 15 Lacs (after accepting credit enhancement offer). Feeling Priviledged , hehe. I have been HDFC Preferred customer since last 6+ years, was always checking net banking card upgrade option hoping it cud get upgraded to regalia but directly Infinia option came.
I confirmed with RM and checked TnC as well its completely Lifetime Free , no annual charges or minimum spends criteria
Where did you check TnC?
it was mentioned in the net banking where u can see card upgrade option, below that small TnC icon will be there. For me it was showing 30% points transfer and no pre-set spending limit, apart from LTF details. I guess it varies from person to person as I was already having 38k points in my regalia first card so it was showing 30% for some people it is even showing 50% (would be having less points may be thats y)
Whats the balance requirement for preffered customer?
A minimum Average Monthly Balance of Rs. 2 Lac in the Savings account
OR
A minimum Average Quarterly Balance of Rs. 5 Lac in a Current Account
OR
A minimum Average Monthly Balance of Rs. 15 Lac in a combination of Savings Accounts, Current Account and Fixed Deposit (single or as part of Family grouping)
Thanks! Upgraded to Diners Club Privilege from Club Miles with same limit and 100% reward points transfer. Thanks!
Hope you have read the clause related to conversion of RP to Air Miles. In club miles, it is 1:1 whereas in Privilege it is 1:1/2. So, when you convert your RP to Air Miles, you will half Air Miles that of your RP. I have an option to convert to privilege, but holding back due to the same reason.
I got 10k enhancement of limit on dinners club
Got upgrade from Regalia to DCB with same limit as earlier of Rs 5.8 Lakhs
Hi Sid!
I have also accepted upgrade to new DCB from Regalia through netbanking. Was looking for infinia but right now only DCB is offered to me. And my RM is useless.
Looking at no of people getting super premium credit card upgrades, all domestic airport lounges are going to get over crowded soon.. 😀
Also can’t understand how hdfc will handle losses due to LTF.
Surely, some devaluation will happen soon. Till that time everyone can enjoy…
There won’t be any loss due to LTF. I expect a surge in purchase from new-to-Infinia customers and more “revenge spending” with vaccines being rolled out. It will push up the demand & the need for loans. Talk of push starting the machine cycle once again after a dead battery.
HP, I heard is already having a huge tourist inflow. All the best, may this surge benefits your business as well 😛
Thank you for your wishes but we are closed till April, 2022. Can’t risk life for business 🙂
Sid,
can we pay income tax during ITR filing using credit card? If yes.. which card gives reward points for such transactions?
Income tax can’t be paid via credit card directly ~ it has to be paid with your deposit & not floating loan. Some wallets allow you to pay through them but then they charge upwards of 2% for reloading with credit cards.
Thats a dream you probably wont see fulfilled in a long time, there is some RBI rule which says you cannot take a loan to pay off statutory taxes , and even if Centre does allow payment via credit cards ever in the future, you will probably lose more in transaction fees than gain points bcoz most Govt owned/operated agency are busy passing MDR to consumers
I got a call from personal banker that I have been upgraded to infinia and life time free card after a long wait of 8 years.
My wife got an upgrade from regalia to infinia. Clearly in TnC it was mentioned as fyf only. Other than the word from customer care executives(who generally dont hv any clue) are there any other clear info that it is ltf. For me also it is mentioned as INR 0, but only for first year free. I still somehow believe people might hv missed out to read the TnC fully.
Customer care service is worst, customer care executive are always busy . They do not attend the call and they do not solve the problem.
The waiting time is usually 2-5 minutes on Preferred status & less than 5 seconds on Imperia. May take up to 10 minutes outside these two programmes
It is showing “We apologize, but this facility is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.” when going to Request->Credit Card Upgrade for me. Not sure if this means they don’t have the offer for me or their service is down somehow.
Hi,
I have Indigo 6XL CC with 8L limit.
WIll I get LTF offer for infinia/DCB?
Any body got offer to upgrade form DCB to Infinia? Or DCB customers wont have that option?
I checked with the customer care team they mentioned that this offer is only for Regalia customers. They are not giving upgrades to Diners Black holders as of now.
I can’t request for credit limit enhancement, neither credit card upgrade. It gives an error “This service is temporally unavailable”. Hell, I can’t even request statement on email with the same error. Btw, it’s a new card (Regalia) that I received last year.
These upgrade/LE HDFC services are usually under maintenance at night.
Either you have already tapped the offer or there may be no offer to you yet.
I have also got offer from regalia to new dcb international with annual fee 0 and rewards points 50%. Is it to be considered as ltf? Please give advice. My LE was done in November 2020 to 6.8l. How to confirm LTF?
I don’t think the upgrade offers are random. They are based on recommendations from AI (something like attrition models)
They want to retain those who have a higher chance of attrition.
Coming onto devaluation, they won’t dare go for devaluation during and sometime after the ban period.
This is just a retention exercise. As they can’t increase their market share, they want to reduce the outflow.
Devaluations might come next year.
How difficult is it to upgrade from dcb to infinia?
Thats not considered an upgrade, they are both same category, check hdfc site. You can try to switch among them though, not too difficult.
Hi Sid!
I am being shown the banner to join ‘Preferred Banking’ in offers section. Will it be helpful in getting my card upgraded, and/or limit enhanced?
(Or is it just another way to getting me to RM’s top potential customers)
Preferred status helps
@Shivi… I clicked on the banner to upgrade to preferred in Netbanking. But nothing has happened from 2 days.No email, no mention in Netbanking. How will I get upgraded?
Go to your branch & ask for upgrade. Upgrade takes up to 2 weeks not 2 days.
I have opted for upgrade to infinia. Could anyone share their experience about any confirmation sms/email, expected date of card delivery
Just now received a SMS stating my current card will disabled by some date. Means my application is in progress. Really weird why no confirmation or status about new card from HDFC
My spouse who has a Fixed Deposit of 4 lacs and is a preferred customer for 1.5 years, with a very normal spends of 1.5 lacs / year on her Regalia First got upgraded to Infinia Mastercard with a limit of 10 Lacs.
On the contrary, It took 04 years for me to move from Regalia to Diners Black and 01 year from Diners Black to Infinia, that too upgrade offer never popped, in both cases, I sent the upgrade forms to Chennai.
My father got upgrade from Freedom card to DCB with same limit as before-Rs 5.05 lakhs and 15% points transfer.
Hi all,
I don’t see any upgrade/ limit enhancement offer in my account. I’m an HDFC Classic account holder since 2014 and recently upgraded to Preferred. I used to have Regalia with 9.7 l limit. I also applied for Indigo 6E XL card(paid version). During the phone verification, I was conveyed that I could you use both the cards with the shared limit. I agreed for that and received the card. But, the existing Regalia card was deactivated and Indigo card was activated( sep 20, 2020).
I tried many ways to get back my Regalia. But, no use. I wrote a letter to their Chennai office, phone calls and series of emails. All went in vain. I’m not at all interested to use the Indigo card. Please….give me an advice to have an upgrade to Infinia.
The RM gives the same robotic answer; no upgrade offer.
one way is close this card and apply for a fresh card and you may get LTF card and wait for next round of upgrade. My experience with HDFC is, if something gets wrong or mis-sold, then it is next to impossible to get it fixed. RM dont have any power.
My RM called me yesterday to inform I am eligible for upgrade to Infinia from Regalia First. Its lifetime free. I opted for the upgrade. My VL is 6.7 lac
Same here. However, before the RM could call, I had already applied for the upgrade to Infinia from Regalia through netbanking. My credit limit was 12lk it got enhanced as well, according to the message in the window
What’s VL?
Thanks for the update brother.
I didn’t know the offer as I have not received any information regarding this from HDFC.
After reading this, I have called the HDFC customer care number [ Which is there in credit card backside ].
Got upgrade to life time free Infinia card 🙂. I got the upgrade from my existing Regalia card for free.
😁😀
Hi Sadanand I am too trying to connect with the customer care but am stuck in IVR not able to speak with executive directly can you guide what option you had selected for speaking with one of the executive…
I speak to CC after 10 PM. The auto driven menus are less then and once you choose the credit card option from the main menu, first you hear the balances and the menu that follows this has the option to speak to a CC person.
How did you get through the virtual assistant on customer care number? I was not able to connect with customer representative. Can you help?
contact the city specific customer support number prefixed with std code like 040 for hyderabad etc or else you can login to your Credit Card netbanking in which you can check the credit card upgrade section.
i got now 2 infinia active cards on my name as primary [not addon]
anyone else have 2 infinia card??
Yes I do have but they are linked to different account number…
other account is also under ur name?
im talking abt primary not addon [from spouse or family member card]
Yes other account is also in my name but the only difference being both accounts have different customer ID with one account in my hometown (in which I rarely do any transaction) and other being in my current city of Residence.
good, im not the only person tht holding 2x infinia primary card
btw, my both cards are on same account number and they are visa and master card
visa is FYF, mc is LTF
i too got option to upgrade from regelia first to DCB with 0 charges.this card will be LTF right?how much time one can expect to get this card delivered once opted?
Opted for upgrade of Regalia First yesterday, and today the new DCB card number with a “transferred” tag is visible in my net-banking. Hoping to receive it soon.
Hi, I love reading your articles and the comments section. Really informative. Everyone’s been getting upgrade offers, but in my NetB I got a downgrade offer ..LOL. From DinerClubMiles to Diners Millennia (didn’t know Millennia even had Diners variant). No lounge access, Lesser value per reward point, etc are some of the downgrades I’m being offered 😂. My card is one against FD, with a relatively smaller limit, but that doesn’t mean HDFC needs to be so insulting. I’m really disappointed with HDFC at this point. Planning to switch over.
I too got the same offer.. In dilemma whether to get millenia or stay with clubmiles.
I also want to know if I choose to do the upgrade/downgrade to millenia will I get next offers or will have to wait for a cycle to complete?
And how long does the upgrade offer remains in netbanking?
I checked with my RM and he also showed me a form…it says for infinia card if u spend 5L within 90 days from the issuance it will be LTF….plz don’t take the customer executive confirmation as final…from my exp…the HDFC customer care executives know nothing…
I think the Hdfc strategy here to convert most of the old LTF customers to paying users by working with fine print in first year and from second year bring up the discussion on renewal fee if not performed the required spend in previous year.
Everyone also knows how tough it is to work with hdfc customer care, so this will play out next year when all these cards will come for renewal.
Got upgrade from Regalia to DCB with same limit as earlier of Rs 7.3 Lakhs asked about infinia but said no such offer.told me LTF for DCB confirmed by cc executive.I have a question then .should i use diners black instead of axis ace as default reward rate is 3.3% vs 2% in ace.I want cash equivalent meaning amazon voucher from smartbuy also works.
Hi Sid
I checked the Card section yesterday and didn’t find the offer. Today morning, I decided to talk to the RM and went to the site to get a screenshot of the no offers available screen. To my surprise, the Upgrade option was available with Infina LTF and the limit is the same as my Regalia, 11 lacs.
I have availed of it, hopefully, this is a move up as Regalia was pretty badly neglected by HDFC Team.
I got an upgrade for diners premium to privilege… earlier there was option to upgrade to diners millennia card but that wasn’t a great card and there was fees. Will probably take up the privilege card as it brings closer to diners black for future upgrades.
Thala @Sid,
I took the CC upgrade to Infinia from Regalia. My question is on the points convertion. The CC upgrade said that my existing Regalia points will be converted to 50% Infinia points. Is it worth doing the 50% conversion or empty my regalia points before moving to Infinia? Would greatly appreciate your inputs on this.
Limit enhancement but no upgrade offer.
My DCB LTF- limit increase from 10l to 11.5l.
But would anyday prefer to get upgrade to infinia (only if Ltf).
Saw most upgrade offers are on regalia or others. Anyone got upgrade offer on their DCB to infinia?
HDFC website mentioned condition for LTF cards
Joining/Renewal Membership Fee – Rs. 10,000/- + Applicable Taxes
Click here to view details of HDFC Bank Infinia Credit Card Fees and Charges
Welcome Benefit of 10000 Reward Points and renewal benefit of 10000 Reward Points (applicable only after the membership fee is realized and not applicable when the fee is waived off)
*Terms & Conditions Apply
NOTE: For card sourced starting 01-11- 2020, Below T&Cs are applicable
1. If the Card remains inactive and is not used for effecting any transaction for a continuous period of 3 (Three) months, the Bank reserves the right to revoke the benefit of Life Time Free status of the Card and Bank also reserves the right to levy yearly renewal fees second year onwards with no fee being charged for the first year only.
2. The Bank reserves the right to cancel the Card in case the Card remains inactive and is not used for effecting any transaction for a continuous period of 6 (Six) months after prior written notice sent on the email address and/or phone number and/or communication address, registered in the records of the Bank.
My CC was upgraded from Privilege to Black recently about 3 months ago. Hence iIdidnt get any CLE / Upgrade / LTF offers. But, my Wife’s CC got a super upgrade today from Regalia First to Regalia with CLE from 50,000 to huge 2 Lakhs. HDFC is on a roll !
Hi All, I got an offer to upgrade from Regalia First to Diners Black with a credit limit increase but my RM asked me not to upgrade. Any idea? I can see that the Annual Membership is zero in my net banking but he mentioned that the bank is undecided on whether to make it LTF or not. Is any of this true? Please advise. Thanks.
I have got an Infinia with 8L limit. Recently, I see a limit enhancement offer to 15L showing in Netbanking.
Should I take it? What could be the cons?
As a pro, I guess if HDFC launches a new card above Infinia in the future, the enhanced credit limit would help.
Thoughts please.
Take the LE & put a cap on spends via net banking
Thanks for the advice, Shivi.
When I was taking the card, I read somewhere that there is no pre-set credit limit for Infinia. Am not know how true is that.
@Siddharth What would you suggest?
This is about posts on how to get the life time free Infinia card. The offer is chosen by HDFC HQ with some criteria and is updated in net banking only. It cannot be get by calling the branch or customer care. Those who dont use net banking may check with the customer care.
Also I have verified with one of the Manager in-charge of credit cards in my region before confirming to apply for the card in net banking. (I have never called/contacted him before, but when the branch staff called me to inform the offer, I asked for some senior staff member to confirm the offer).
After applying in net banking, called the customer care in 30 minutes to verify it. The card was already issued and I got the first 4 and last 4 digits of the new card. So the card issuance is instant. The physical card may be received in 3-5 days. I will update it.
Missed a point in the above post. I have seen Infinia upgrade in my net banking for more than a year with annual fee showing Rs.10000/–. But yesterday it shown only Rs.0.0/. So far, I am a Regalia customer paying annual fee. Before that I was using Jet airways world/signature card.
From where were you able to get the first and last 4 digits of the card?
The new card issuance is instant once you apply in net banking. The first and last 4 digits of the new card was informed by the customer care staff (when I called the customer care to verify the card applying status, the staff said the new card info to me)
he has written customer care in his comment
Siddharth sir please let me know, as i have priority pass with regalia and if I upgrade to dcb then lounge can be accessed by only primary members(as i read in terms and conditions of dcb), can i use priority pass till its expiry date for add on members ? Secondly i had spent on my regalia in the last anniversary year 5.6 lac but they didn’t provide bonus rewards and when I enquired at grievance they said thresholds limit didn’t complete (many times enquired with spending details but no answer). To whom can be contacted?
Regards
Getting replies from Hdfc customer care is tough. Write a email and keep following up and if required take it to grievance cell. But when you upgrade to DCB you can forget the points regalia then.
When card is closed details are shared to priority pass to cancel the pass connected to the required card.
Thank you Ankur S for information
Hi Guys! I wrote to HDFC’s Grievance Redressal Cell, for an upgrade offer from Regalia to Infinia for my mother. They have confirmed that the NetBanking offer is for a Lifetime Free variant. Below is the fineprint
‘Basis your recent e-mail, we wish to inform you that there is an upgrade offer available in your card account to Infinia as a Life Time Free credit card. We request you to avail the same immediately. The offer might be stopped at anytime. Hence we request you to avail the same through your netbanking to get the Life Time Free benefit.’
I’d suggest you to write to Grievance.Redressalcc [at] hdfcbank.com and have a confirmation in writing.
Cheers,
Akash
No need to get confirmation actually. Its LTF as re-confirmed via various sources. And yes, the LTF upgrade offer is expected to be closed very soon. Hence, those who’re waiting.. its better to go and click that button when available 🙂
Akash, Was this offer not available to you in netbanking before you emailed the customer care? Did you check before emailing?
Are you saying that you got it after you mailed them?
@siddharth : I dont have the offer in my net banking. I am an imperia customer with DCB. Do you think mailing grievance cell will be of any use?
Hey Mahesh! Nope. The offer was already there. But I wanted to confirm if they were offering a FYF card or a LTF variant of Infinia. I thought its would be useful to have the confirmation over mail.
I have Diners Premium with limit of 5.26 Lacs.. Not getting upgrade for Diner Black or Infinia..
Can see the upgrade for Diners Privilege..
How can I get this upgradation to Diners Black of Infinia? please advise..
Use the step of privilege to get to DCB. Privilege is a good initial upgrade from premium.
Do not accept Diners Privilege. Even I did not accept. And after few months, I got Dinners Black upgrade offer.
So just wait and watch.
Hi,
Can a customer can hold both DCB and INFINIA (both LTF ) cards ?
I currently hold :
1. Regalia First (LTF)
2. DCB (LTF)
I have a offer to upgrade Regalia First to DCB (LTF) but a customer can’t hold two cards of same franchise, as per customer care.
Once you go diners black, infinia will not be easy as they are same category as per hdfc. Keep regalia first and wait for upgrade to regalia.
I have “VISA SIGN REGALIA CARD INTL”.
Any idea if a customer can hold both DCB and Infinia (LTF) ?
In 2017-2018, HDFC allowed you to have 2 cards. I know a few who hold DCB & Infinia, both as LTF.
I too recieved this offer day before yesterday. They are offering Infinia with 8.75 limit.
However, i have a query and would be obliged if someone can answer here:
I am currently out of India. Can i apply for upgrade now, and activate my card later when i will be back? can my family at my home receive it from my behalf? (As I am not sure, if offer will be applicable for me after few months)
(Existing “Preferred Customer” with Regalia Card with limit of 5.75)
Thanks.
They can receive it.
Note: The offer is expected to be closed very soon.
Siddharth, So does this mean that for people who have not received it till now wont be getting it later this month? Who ever eligible have already received it.
I am a Imperia customer DCB card
Hi Sid,
I am getting an option to upgrade HDFC Diners Privilege to HDFC Diners Black. But with an annual fee of Rs.10k. Mine is an LTF Diners.
Do you suggest going to chargeable Diners Black is worth?
As what I noted major difference is Unlimited Airport lounge access worldwide & 1RP= 1Rs. Diners Privilege- 1RP=0.50Rs
But keeping in mind such a high annual fee?
If you apply now, your existing cards will be automatically deactivated in March first week. I applied on Jan 04, card issuance is instant, I received the SMS today about my existing card deactivation date. Or if you activate new card now, the existing card will be deactivated immediately.
Vibhu, I am too out of India. I contacted the customer care and they told that my family member at the registered address can receive the card. Delivery person will call on my registered phone number, I need to receive the call and need to agree for this. However I feel in reality they will simply give it to family member.
If we want to upgrade to infinia, Which is better, Visa Infinite or Mastercard Infinia ?
Replied under Infinia reviews
I think hdfc doesn’t gives u an option to choose b/w via & mastercard variants because u can’t argue with them about acceptance.
High chance u will by default receive Visa Infinite.
Mastercard Currency transacation rates are low compared to Visa, Wanted to know if visa infinite provides any more benefits.
I got a call from RM today for upgrade to infinia. I am regalia holder since 2016.
RM confirmed it’s LTF like my regalia. As per her RP transferred to new card will have same value.
Your RM seems better person.
We are unfortunate to have useless RM.
My RM even don’t know about credit card offers even though its showing in netbanking.
yes, even my rm is useless..he doesn’t knows anything abt upgrade
RMs are calling because if they upgrade from their end they get comission. That’s the reason.
But from when HDFC will start to dispatch new cards? any news?
Applied yesterday evening.. dispatched today
That’s quick. Which city?
I dont think for anyone else, upgraded card dispatched yet.
Bro for both me and my wife infinia dispathed yesterday via bluedart
My card has already been dispatched via BlueDart on 04th Jan
I got the infinia card. but not able to register in HDFC netbanking
Go to Cards > Request > Transferred Card Registeration. Select your old card. Then new card number will appear. Click on it. Now old card would disappear from NetBanking and only new card would be reflected.
As i have done one transaction. the old Regalia card is disabled not able to see in netbanking. I have talk to RM and she said it will come automatically in 1 day or 2.
Thanks. This worked.
Thats good information. Now I am seeing the new Infinia card details in card section. Old Regalia card number is not visible now.
How these upgrades look from lounge access point of view after the flights get restored to pre-COVID frequencies? Whether the lounges restrict access to DCB and Infinia cards as they did for Regalia and Regalia First previously?
Majority of Lounges are closed now due to COVID and other reasons. Also people are not travelling much.
The way HDFC is providing these cards LTF, surely lounge access (domestic) will get restricted soon.
Yes bank already did it for its premium cards.
And if Lounges are getting super crowded, it will not make any sense for travelers to visit them.
But till that time, we can enjoy the benefits. Nothing to loose for us.
That will be a very tricky situation for both the card holder and bank point of view if the so called super super premium cards are not accepted for one of their most interesting USP. Looks like the banks are busy bridging the gap between entry level cards and super premium category by devaluing the latter. Let’s hope nothing drastic will happen.
For infinia, just go ahead and swipe the PP card , should get you in
lounges are open when you travel , however , only 1 lounge per airport is open at the moment… take it as a boon or bane..boon is at Mumbai Aiport, you get access to the Business class lounge instead of the smaller one earlier.. bane is overcrowding
Have they restricted lounge access for regalia and Regalia First ? Could you please elaborate?
Restriction is basically on lounge locations. Best example – For Delhi only T3 lounge access is allowed and not T1 and T2.
So location list if you compare to other bank cards will be very small.
Hi,
I was using Lifetime free (LTF) HDFC Bank DINERS ClubMiles credit card. Today, i got an increase in credit limit along with the card upgrade to Diners Club Privilege Credit Card. Rarely, i have seen this combination, bank giving both the benefits together. The limit has now crossed 5L. But I do not see much difference in the card Rewards structure. Any major benefit, will it make? I doubt.
Check Sid’s article for privilege vs club miles and you should have your answer on which is better for you.
I was holding Regalia LTF with CL of 4.5L and got upgrade to DCB LTF (50%RPs) in November 2020. Applied for it after LTF confirmation from RM. Now coming to RPs, all bonus points for the month were credited on the 1st or 2nd of next month.
I started checking NetBanking regularly in my family accounts after this and on 3rd Jan, I got LE to 5.79L on my DCB. Regalia LTF 10.5L to Infinia LTF (50% RPs) in one account. Regalia First LTF 5.5L to DCB LTF (30% RPs) in another account. Called RM and confirmed whether both are LTF or not. As soon as he said yes, I applied immediately through NetBanking. Yet to receive both.
Now I have 1 Infinia and 2 DCB in three different accounts obviously. Just hope that devaluation doesn’t come soon.
@Siddharth: do I need to setup autopayment bill pay if my card is life time free?
If hdfc devalue these, why people will pay 10000 next year?
Would depend on the extent of devaluation & the worthiness of the card at that point of time
HDFC Infinia is already devalued considering when I was onboarded HDFC Infinia, all cards came with minimum credit limit of 10 Lakhs but now they issue it with even lower credit limit. Lounge Facility is kept intact ( BTW recently I was not able to access Plaza Premium T3 (Domestic Departure) with HDFC Issued Priority Pass, need to use Emeralde for lounge access). And when I got that card in 2014, they also gave me Taj innercircle Gold and Epicure Plus, which in combination offered seamless benefits at Taj Properties and was much better than Club Marriot (That comes complimentary now a days). Also for 10X lovers there was not any capping on no of points that you can earn, but I personally haven’t used it much.
So that’s why they have been able to keep the fees intact, but I am hoping and have a very positive outlook about HDFC, that they might launch a ultra premium credit card very soon which comes with unique and exclusive benefits for HNI and UHNI’s which can offer them value as well as experience.
Also,
Plaza Premium Delhi has stopped accepting Priority pass issued via HDFC, I have personally experienced it and confirmed the same.
I heard
HDFC going to Launch it’s New Super Premium Metal Credit Card
Eligibility criteria
Invitation Only.
Minimum Credit Limit in existing HDFC Credit card Minimum 15-25Lakh
Or
ITR 50lakh Above
Annual Fee 20-50k
Fee waiver Annual Spend 10-15lakh
It’s very likely but have you confirmed the same…
Source of rumor?
@SINGH
We would like to know more about it. Or may be source?
Thanks in advance.
stop spreading rumours , it might launch a new card but no way u could get this info as nowhere its been leaked out so far, so please stop spreaming rumours on ur own.
HDFC been making lot of offers to existing customers, especially after the RBI order to halt new cards. Upgrade also appears to be one such. Hence they offering upgrades atleast to the premium segment who are already at the threshold of super-premium, or in some cases basic to premium, but only to those who are already at that threshold. Looking at the cost, well they were anyway giving off 10K points in return for 10K fee on Infinia. And DB upgrade has been targeted for individuals who anyway spend (or hdfc believes would spend) atleast 5L and would have had fees waived by virtue of spend criteria. So giving out LTF to a specific customer segment doesn’t realistically make any diff to their fee revenue. But by giving LTF upgrades they can keep existing customers happy, restore some confidence as well as fend off competition.
Is it so if i upgrade my card card now, i will not get upgrade offer for a year?
DCB/Infinia are the highest tier cards in HDFC. No more upgrades left
Wonder why people worrying about lounge crowding or restrictions on free accesses. They are already crowded and I hardly ever come across anyone paying full to get into a lounge. Passenger traffic is ever increasing, many more card issuers are offering lounge accesses, people are holding multiple cards, and more and more lounges are being introduced as well. HDFC’s upgrades alone are not gonna make much difference neither to the lounges nor to HDFC. Only a tiny fraction of hdfc cardholders have been targeted for upgrades.
How can I apply for DCB on a card 2 card basis?
I have AMEX MRCC with around 2.5 lac credit limit
DCB needs 5 lakhs plus limit on existing HDFC card.
Hi Siddharth,
I have been holding a Diners Club Black card for more than an year now, credit limit 13.7 l, and annual spend approx 10l. Haven’t received the upgrade offer, but want infinia because of the 10x-7500 cap on Diners Black.
Can one hold two credit cards from HDFC if they are on different payment networks? (Read something similar in the comments above). I am thinking of applying for an Infinia (against a deposit), while still holding the Diners Black.
Hi Siddharth,
I received my upgraded card (Diners Privilege from club miles) today and I did an ecomm trx as well but unfortunately, the new card is still not visible in net banking section while the old one became inactive post 1st transaction on the new card. I am also not able to register the upgraded card using new card registration.
Is this usual with HDFC ? How much time it takes to reflect upgraded card ?
Can you or someone please share his/her experience.
There is an option for “Transferred Card Registration” use that.
Its good info from users about “Transferred Card Registration”. I have registered the new Infinia card using this option and now the new card details are visible in card section. Old Regalia card details are not visible now. After this, I done a transaction in Amazon to check the Regalia card whether works or not. It works. It means Registering new card does not mean that old card will become inactive. Still my new card is not dispatched. Applied on Jan 4th evening around 4pm. The offer was live from Jan 02nd, it seems.
I am stuck with useless Jetprivlege signature card with 10L CL. I have normal savings account and a customer for 10+ yrs. Whenever I call customer care or visit branch, they ask to fill the upgrade form. There is no upgrade offer on net banking as well.
You should have sent the upgrade form to chennai long back. Jet & all jet related cards are redundant.
At last got my useless Jetprivlege / Intermiles CC upgraded to Regalia CC. In this digital age, HDFC still insists on paper based proofs, which is a huge dealbreaker for me. But, I had not other option, but to fill the form, attach proofs, visit the branch and drop it in the dropbox.
Thanks But It says
“The transaction is currently not available for your account. Please contact our 24 hour call center for further assistance.” and HDFC call center sucks!
I got upgraded to inifinia mc variant. My new card is visible in netbanking. If i made a purchase using old credit card number whether my rewards will be posted as per old card or as per infinia.
Use new card and make purchase. If you are using old card, reward points would be as per old card feature only
Most likely as per Infinia however it’d depend if the transfer of card had taken place already on the date of transaction or not
Rewards will be posted as per old card reward slabs.
Used old card for rs 600 transaction got 20 points in infinia this means rewards are as per new card. Confirmed with customer care he said that rewards in transactions after upgrade will be as per new card ie infinia.
For Best Cards of 2021, Please consider below points. I know it’s lot to ask but It will help the community in a great way. Good luck with the new list.
1)Golf Benefits and some weird T&C of them like 4 pax should be there along with current member of the club, weekdays or weekends, something like that. Couldn’t possibly get this info anywhere at once.
2)Dining Benefits, Memberships to maximize the Value
3) Accelerated Rewards, how long do they take to get Credited like HDFC 10x, 5x, Amex 5x etc
3)Amex Platinum Airline Benefits, like Airline Program for Discounted Premium Economy, Business and First Class Flights, And Auto Upgrade Option from Business Class to First Class in Some Airlines
4)Can Amex MRCC be obtained as Companion Card to Amex Platinum Charge Card? (Since Plat Reserve is of no use if you already have Plat Charge) So that we can combine Points for Miles Transfer?
5)No. Of Credit (Charge) Cards can be obtained per issuer
6)Will they require complete application process again for each and every card?
7)Which Issuers give Seperate & Shared Limits
8)Having Preferred Banking, Priority Banking etc help jn getting Super Premium Cards?
9) Latest info on Reward Points value, Airline/Hotel Transfer Points value
10) Which Issuers and Cards can be obtained through Card to Card Process
11) And if it’s not a basic Card, how much the limit must be there for upgrading to that particular card
12)And we some people have official name format in all docs (Aadhar, VoterID, DL etc) “Arun M V”, but Passports and PAN have format “Arun Mxxx Vxxx”, in this case, in which name format should we get the Card, particularly for the purpose of Transferring Points to Airline/Hotel Miles, Points won’t be transferable if there is a name mismatch
You might as well take/upgrade to paid services of blog owner for THAT!
I spoke with my RM and she mentioned that it’s not possible to upgrade from DCB to Infinia as they are different platforms. And issuing Infinia will be like issuing a new card which is not allowed by the government at the moment.
I told her that this does not make sense as its within the HDFC credit card portfolio and i need to move to Infinia due to the limited acceptability of Diners when i travel abroad.
Has anyone received this explanation of moving from Diners to Infinia?
Salary account with HDFC for 12+ yrs.
DCB for 3yrs with 13L current limit.
Seems True Aashish and logical as well.. I also have DCB paid version and not able to upgrade. However my wife got upgrade from Regalia first to Infinia LTF. It was done customer care and I can see new card number and Infinia in net banking. Waiting for the physical card
I received the same info from my RM.
Then I showed him people from regalia being upgraded left right and centre to Diners Black. Isn’t this too cross platform?
He said he will get back. Lol
So I took the Infinia as FYF its a VISA and the RM called me up later that had I not upgraded via the netbanking today he would have gotten me the new HDFC CC thats coming soon as FYF.
Now he could have been bluffing because he wanted to upgrade the card himself and had called me to the branch but I did not go and did it over netbanking myself but if real a new card is on its way.
So does that mean there will be no degradation to Infinia ?
Would a upgrade be possible from Infinia to the new card before a year ?
I spoke to the manager of my RM about HDFC coming up with new card. According to him nothing is coming in next 3 months for sure..
Q3-Q4 is what my RM had told me so it could be true but I dont regret taking this FYF will cancel all other cards and use this but it does not have VISTARA as a partner that DCB has meaning cant close my AXIS Vistara CC yet 🙁
Does HDFC give DCB & Infinia in split config now a days?
Called my RM’s head who sits in chandigarh even though its Sunday he did indulge me. Told him what the RM told me Q3-Q4 new card etc etc and he told me that HDFC is reading a new product on either a infinite Privilege or infinite Select “This does not seem to exist”.
As far as FYF he said its upto the bank and they dont know anything they are working on it still.
Nope
My credit limit is above 7L.
Regalia first for three years.
Just upgraded to regalia by offer.
Classic account for over an year.
The bank folks say they need more vintage before infinia occur.
Does having accepted regalia offer rule me out for infinia ? If so, for how long?
Hi, did anyone got upgrade from DCB to Infinia LTF ?
Looks like no.. The reason is that the both are in different platforms and it would be more like issuing a new card which is not allowed now..
Upgrades are not new customer acquisitions, be it from Visa/master to Diners or vice versa. Lot of Visa/master cards are already upgraded to Diners black in recent upgrade exercise. So it’s not matter of change of platform. The probable reason for not migrating Diners black to Infinia are –
1. Loss of valued customers from Diners portfolio, as mostly customers don’t prefer Diners due to acceptability issues already. Could be a clause between hdfc and diners relationship.
2. Infinia and Diners black lie in same segment and bank doesn’t consider it an upgrade.
Looks like not a single person did
Hi Siddharth, the blog is really informative. Great work!!! I am following this blog for more than an year.
Do you know if HDFC is offering LTF Infinia upgrade for DCB paid users ?
Got a call today from my HDFC RM, my Regalia card got upgraded to Infinia with LTF status. 🙂
I got a message of upgradation available, but not sure if it’s free or not?
Any idea of that?
It’s free it seems.. call customer care and they can confirm.
Anyone have any idea if HDFC can ship their cards to overseas address like American Express does?
Please talk to your RM and Branch Manager. I was once offered the same when I had to travel for a business trip. I did not opt for it. But they were ready to ship it to France. But yes its possible
No, HDFC will just ship to registered communication address. I think barring AMEX only Corporate Cards (like from Citi) have this any address shipment.
If you have lost your existing HDFC card overseas then they might as per their emergency card replacement service.
do amex ship indian card to us
Hello there!
I’ve been following this thread for past 4 days now. I think this is the right time for me to update the CC enthusiasts there.
After reading this thread I immediately jumped to my net banking 3 days ago to check for the upgrade and to my surprise, I was offered a upgrade to Infinia visa infinite from Regalia (my limit was 7.3 lacs; I was offered limit upgrade of 13.3 lacs along with the card upgrade). While the foot note specifies that card is FYF only; I checked with my RM. He was of the belief that it’s not possible in this life that the Infinia would be LTF and denied. Not satisfied with his reply, I then contacted the Customer care. They confirmed that the card is LTF.
After getting myself a upgrade, I checked for my wife as well. She too got an upgrade from Regalia first to Infinia master card world. (LTF). She had a limit of 7 lacs.
To give a glimpse of the journey: I was offered Regalia LTF 4 years ago; DC an year ago but didn’t take it as my dream card was Infinia. I was a classic bank customer for last 4 years. 3 months ago I was mapped to Imperial with my wife. And now we finally got an upgrade.
I believe that this upgrade is being done for customers with Imperial relationship and holding Regalia/ Regalia first with limit of of around 7 lacs.
How much spend did you do on your card? And where if you can tell please
Like in a year 6 L or more?
Can you please help with some more info!
Thanks in advance
Thanks Sid for this post. I checked for all the 5 credit cards which we have in the family and except for my mom’s card, none had this offer.
For my mom, she got an upgrade from MC Regalia (limit 3 lakhs) to MC Infinia (limit 10 lakhs).
Not sure how HDFC selected her and no one else. But anyways good to have an Infinia along with Diners Black in the family 🙂
Hi Siddharth,
I have received Regalia to Diner’s Black upgrade through internet banking. Credit limit 5.3L to 5.3L.
Now, I received call from RM that my other card (HDFC Moneyback) is eligible for upgrade to Diner’s Black (Limit is 75K only).
Can I get two Diner’s Black for same login account?
I asked RM to upgrade Moneyback to Regalia or Infinia, she declined that it is not eligible. Shall I send physical form for Moneyback to Infinia or Regalia upgrade?
I want to confirm that I got upgraded to Regalia from Regalia First. On the netbanking site, it was mentioned FYF and after that fees waiver for spends above 3 lpa. As some of you have mentioned here, I called up the customer care and got a confirmation that the card is life time free and also a Rs 500 voucher to be delivered to my address in the next 20 days. Also, the reward point conversion was 60% (it was mentioned on the site as well as confirmed by the executive).
So, thanks Sid and all others for a great discussion in the comments.
I spoke with my RM today & told that this offer got closed today morning.. i don’t know it is true or not. Any one have any idea?
Curious to know if anyone got upgrade option to both infinia and DCB and can choose among the two.
Also if we take DCB now, in future, will we get upgrade only within Diners or Visa infinite is also possible?
Sid, thanks for the info.
I had got the offer for DCB and opted for it. Although I am waiting for it to be delivered, i got the new card reflecting on my NetBanking (through Transferred card option as suggested by someone here). To my surprise, all transactions done on my existing regalia card now seems to be collecting reward points based on DCB reward rates, including bonus points on weekend dining.
Anyone else noticed this?
I did the the same using my Regalia card numbers which is now supposed to be upgraded to DCB (yet to receive physically except the first and last digits o net-banking) but only got 30 points for a 5X RP transaction via smart buy. The additional bonus points are accrued at a later date is what I guess.
Yes only the normal 1x points would reflect immediately. But that would be 5 points per 150 as per DCB reward structure instead of 4 per 150 of regalia.
I see the option to upgrade to Infinia in net banking but ya, same comments in the down. FYF and from 2nd year its charged. Called up RM. He offered DCB LTF but told that infinia from net banking is not LTF. I seriously doubt my RM as he never had any info whatever I asked in the past. I also dropped a mail to various email id for a credit card for clarification. No reply. Please suggest guys.
Looks like offer is expired. I am not able to see the option to upgrade credit card from netbanking website
The offer was showing in net banking until yesterday and it disappeared today. HDFC upgrade campaign practices are so annoying, they don’t even give a day or two to think for the customer and make a better decision. It is like now or never, one has to accept whatever they offer or wait until their next clueless and pointless upgrade campaign runs which is very difficult to predict.
I am with HDFC CC (no other relationship) for more than 14 years with a perfect track record of payments. Started with a credit limit of just 30k and have now got a Regalia First with a CL of only 1.4 lacs. I have written to HDFC multiple times for LE & card upgrade but get rejected all the time. With other banks, I have a limit upwards of 7 lacs but HDFC refuses to budge and increase my limits or upgrade my card. Now, I have decided to stop using the card as earlier I was maximizing the limits unless for a small amount of <1000 or if there is an offer.
Open HDFC Preferred savings account. Use it actively for 6-8 months & then see your CLE offers
Anyone still seeing the offer? Mine is no longer coming up
This is really surprising. I am a HDFC cc user for 8 yrs. Hold salary account for 10 yrs. Having DCB for over a year with limit of 9.2 lakhs. But still havent received Infinia upgrade. I sent a mail to Nodal officer . They asked me to fill the upgrade request form. My request is being reviewed. Spoke to RM as well and requested for the same.
Any update from me. Do I did not receuve the upgrade. I just received LE to 9.6 lakhs. I am DCB card holder for last 1 yr, spend above 11 lakhs in past 12 month. HDFC cc user since 2013.
As luck would have it, I received a call from a new RM introducing himself to me. I requested him for upgrade. Next day I received msg saying that my card has been upgraded to 6##6. Its been 3 days sibce then but I didnt receive any msg about courier details. Today I received a msg about bonus cc points and they have mentioned last 4 digits of new cc number 6##6. I havent received any card yet. Nor do I see any card on netbanking upgrade. Really strange.
Upgraded from Regalia to Diners black. DCB doesn’t work on many international news website, Booking.com and local stores. Forex markup of 1.99% is a waste if one can’t use it on foreign merchants. Pity for those who pays 10k to get the diners card.
I upgraded my Regalia to DCB on 2nd Jan using internet banking. Today is 8th Jan and the card is not yet dispatched. Card number is already generated and transferred. Anyone else here with similar situation ?
Same for me upgraded on 2nd jan still no message for dispatch,using old card and rewards are as per new card so no issues in transactions.
Hi Addy, Are you sure the point being added are as per the upgraded card? Have been upgraded from Regalia to DCB with masked card numbers visible on net banking but have postponed a few big ticket expenses until I have the new card.
The HDFC SmartBuy portal asks us to enter the last four digit of the card to proceed and instructs to use that for final payment. But without the full card numbers I was hesitant in doing so.
Yes, I am in same situation, However i see masked new card details on Net-banking .
Yes Saurabh I am. Check my earlier comments I have confirmed that rewards are as per new card in my case.
I am still using Hdfc moneyback credit card because my 99% spent are online and I don’t need airport lounge access.
Plz suggest any card upgrade which gives more cash rewards.
Did anyone receive the physical Infinia card? I got upgraded on 4th jan 2021 but till havent got it
Hi Sid, what happens to the old Infinia customers, do they still pay the fees with high Credit limit or is there anyway to get it changed to LTF, anyone got the LTF for existing Infinia or DCB credit card.
I believe paid Infinia/dcb members might be moved to the new card that hdfc is likely to launch, at same/discounted pricing. This is only assumption.
This offer doesn’t stand anymore now! I don’t see any option to upgrade through net banking.
Any one got a upgrade from Business Regalia ?
Just curious to know all getting upgrades from regalia but any one from Business variant?
There is no Business Infinia variant hence you won’t get upgrade offer. Infinia comes in only 2 variants – Personal & NRI
so what am i suppose to do with buss Regalia card ?? hold it like forever ? or send a manual upgrade to chennai ?
My family holding business regalia 6 card none got offer to upgrade any varient so I guess this offer was only for regila or other varient holder not for business regalia holder
My RM told me that due to the negative feedback from longtime HDFC customers that did not receive the upgrade offer, Bank has withdrawn this offer.
Its a short term offer by design.
Hi. Got an email confirmation from infinia team that upgraded card indeed is an LTF without any conditions. Believe this will put end to all the speculations with regards to this. Upgraded members enjoy as long as perks are maintained.
I already have Infinia, talked to RM – they are saying it cannot be made Life Time Free.
And that offer was only for some users for 3-4 days where they were offered to upgrade to Infinia LTF.
Slightly disappointed that existing Infinia holder doesn’t get LTF but new ones are getting
Thats sad part of story for existing Infinia customers. And no logic whatsover I understand on how people got these upgrade offers.
I got call from my RM and my regalia card was upgraded to infinia. It is life time free card.
I opted for offer to upgrade to DCB from Regalia.
I wonder when will card get delivered?
For Regalia, the credit limit is shown as 0 and all my rewards points have become 0 as well.
Seems like Regalia is almost useless. There is no new card listed yet in my credit card section though.
The same happened with me. Except I can see my reward points. I wanted to use my credit card but now I can’t . Did hdfc shared any delivery info with you? I have not received any info from HDFC till now regarding my new credit card delivery status.
Is this expected that credit limit of the previous credit card becomes 0 immediately are upgrading the credit card?
Hi, Did you receive your card yet? I have been upgraded to Infinia on 4-Jan-2021 but still not received the Physical Card.
Did you/anyone receive the physical card yet or delivery update SMS?
received on 14 jan placed request on 02 jan. state haryana.
I called HDFC Customer Care and they have no clue what there is a delay. The Infinia card upgraded on 4-Jan and started showing in net-banking since 8-Jan but have not received the card (state- West Bengal) yet after 16 days. HDFC had taken a complain 7 days ago but still no update.
Not sure what is going on internally within Bank but its a disappointing service.
Anyone else received the card yet?
Need a quick help, I was seeing Infinia upgrade on my net banking from regalia. Since I was in my native and not in bangalore, so my RM suggested me to first update the address so that I get the card. Once I updated the address o line, and new address got updated. I am
Not seeing the upgraded offfer anymore. Please let me know what are my options, RM is saying that upgrade offer expired…
Offer is gone. You should have taken the offer when it was there
Call HDFC CC. Same happened to one of my friend and she called Customer Care and her card was upgraded.
Btw, How did you change Credit card mailing address online ? I though offline is only mode !
Thanks !
Your RM is useless. You should have upgraded the card with old address only, it would have been returned back to bank. You could have updated address later and request to dispatch card on new address.
Even I too called CC for the upgrade. But they told the offer has lapsed. My RM doesnt know anything about this offer,, He only told me that not to upgrade because the bank might be charge for the upgraded card
The offer was showing last week online. But since the footnotes said minimum 8L spends in a year to waive off annual fees, I ignored it until I saw this thread that it is LTF. Was planning to call up customer care to confirm LTF status. Called up customer care today, but now the offer has been rescinded from the system (at least for me). Slight delay of 1 week and loss of opportunity.
Any body still reciving upgrade offers ???
Upgrade to DCB from Regalia and requested on 5 January, card number shown and updated in transfer card options next day, however didn’t get dispatch message even after 4 days. Any member received upgraded card? Can I get complete number of card from net banking system? Please inform if anyone has information. Regards and thanks
Sometimes dispatch does take longer than usual. I remember similar issue during my previous upgrade. Calling CC might help.
And as per my knowledge, you can not get complete card number from net banking.
Same here. No info on card dispatch. I couldn’t find a way to see the complete card details from net banking.
I had taken the offer on 2 Jan 2020 and still not got the dispatch details. Disappointing service!
Mine got upgraded to Infina from Regalia First on 4th Jan. Same here got the 1st 3 and last 4 digits of the card on the same day , can check that in net banking as well, got existing card deactivation message by MAR starting, after that didnt receive any message. Still waiting for my card to get delivered
Did not receive updated card. Had opted for the LTF Infinia upgrade on 2nd January. No idea why it’s taking so long. Have others received their card?
I also upgraded my regalia first card to DCB and almost it’s been a week no info on physical card. Complete card no is not visible on net banking and HDFC customer care (real person addressing concern) is hard to reach.
You can continue using old card. Due to high demand New card will. E delivered in 2-3 weeks.
HDFC is taking time to dispatch DCB cards. Maybe due to surge in demand after upgrade. I have received DCB card dispatch sms after 9 days.
Hdfc do not provide facility to view card details through app/NetBanking similar to virtual card. Hence I guess you need to wait till physical card gets delivered.
I had started HDFC Regalia First>>Regalia path. Also converted by old HDFC SB account to HDFC Salary account about 2 yrs ago. HDFC Regalia is LTF for me. Limit about 5L. My yearly charge would be around 2.5-3L, not expected to go up.
I saw in Netbanking that HDFC is offering DCB upgrade. No fee was mentioned in the page. Given the acceptance issue and uncertainty about FYF/LTF on such cards where I do not foresee increase in spending, I was in two minds. Now the offer is not there – when I go there it shows an error functionality temporarily unavailable (HDFC’s lingo of saying FU 🙂 )
As usual, my RM does not have much idea. Do you think it might make sense to call them and ask if they can do a split of balance between DCB and Regalia? Also I suppose I should check about the yearly charges?
From my experience RMs are useless, they just need us to finish their target. I am an imperia customer and till date I have not got any upgrade offers or credit limit offers. It now makes me look like a fool to know that I will be paying 10k for my DCB but lot others have it LTF. Their logic of deciding offers are baseless. I had better experience from Kotak Premier Banking and even Axis. I will most probably close my relationship after using up all the remaining reward points.
Agreed. Imperia is useless. Keep the card though. It’s best reward card at present even with fees.
@Mahesh
Same experience with my RM who is a lady unfortunately. I cannot shout at her . She just calls for her target and forces for some stupid card. I lost temperment with manager when he tried to sell some stupid Tata policy where i should keep paying till 80 years of age and after that i get my money back 🙂
I had to give advice to manager to not sell those type of policies and from that time he turns face when ever i go to branch 🙂
By the way i am also using paid variant of DCB and had invitation for infinia (2 years back invitation was must) but bank did not give infinia and stated i should show 60 lakhs plus ITR. I always belive in trying
and will try once whether they can convert my DCB paid to Infinia lTF since now infinia is given to all Tom ,dick and harry 🙂
@Rohit Lady or gent their RM department is uselsess.
I have previously ended my Kotak relationship without second thought for some baseless reason the bank gave me on CC. Now they are behind me begging to come back for months.
I would have done the same with HDFC but I am not in the base location now. I will surely plan soon.
For now as a last attempt I have mailed the grievance redressal team that I need an upgrade from Diners Black to Infinia. ( My Diners black was of no use in UK and Europe)
I am an imperia customer with 3 savings accounts, Demat account, HDFC mutual Funds and 2 accounts in my wife’s name which is also Imperia.
Let’s see what they decide. Only problem is I will have to keep one account atleast since i have given it as default in many places.
But I won’t remain Imperia for sure.
@Rohit – I did’nt see the shout at her part. 😛
Yes you are right. 🙂
But if you are Imperia, then e mail to change RM. That’s possible. Then they will learn.
It won’r be so easy for them to meet their target if one Imperia account leaves their folio.
How much time did it take you to get an upgrade to Regalia from Regalia First?
I’ve been using Regalia First for 6 months, and I was expecting a Limit Enhancement/upgrade, but I didn’t get it.
For me it was about 1.5 yrs, may be a bit less. Idea is to keep checking your netbanking, and eat up as much LE as you can get. After a point, they will give you Regalia. It is no longer as good as it used to be, but still one of the good ones.
Be careful about one thing – if you are LTF in RFirst, and have Smartpay bills configured, ensure that you delete all such registrations before you click Regalia upgrade option in netbanking. Once the card is issued, you go back and register afresh for those smartpay – also keep a screenshot if you like. Both steps together should be like 10 mins max. Then at the year anniversary, if they charge, you can dispute it. I did the same and got the yearly charge back. That is the time you push them and get it LTF. For me it happened over 1 and half months.
It took me over 2 years
Just for info:
I m having only cc relationship with hdfc from 2011. Only took no cost emi option once never took any loan. Was using regalia LTF for last 4 years with a good limit started with titanium card LTF. Last year spend were not even in 6 digits. All my upgrades are LTF including infinia mc recently. Cibil score above 800.
Dear Sid,
Upgrade offer was seen by me in my net banking from Regalia to Infinia.
However, I was a bit late in applying for the same.After a couple of days, that option I could not find.Talked to CC and was told I am not eligible 4 the same.
LE option is still apppearing.
Yes, Upgrade offer was short lived.
Usually upgrade offer will come on mail or SMS.. This time – no update from bank.. Thanks Sid for this article. I usually refresh this page once daily of there is any new update from you.. That helped me to apply for upgrade of my 6 year old Regalia to DCB.
Sid sir
One of my friend found from money back to regalia first ltf and it was available on 11 January and he accepted. So super premium offer removed but still available for basic upgrade . He got otp for new card on second day. But no details of dispatch for my diners black even after 8 days.
One query my present regalia card which is already upgraded to DCB and new card registered as transferred card but not dispatch. If i order with regalia on Amazon, may i get rewards and bonus rewards as per diner or regalia?
Thank you
I just came to know that Plaza Premium Lounges no longer accepting Priority Pass in India. Can someone confirm the same?
Maybe bad news for Infinia holders with PP.
If PP is not accepted then they better close it down. In Jan 2020 Chennai International terminal they did not accept dcb and siad only PP is allowed. Not sure whether it’s plaza premium lounge.
then how can we get again sir
Same thing happened with me. I saw the offer to upgrade from the Regalia to Diners Black, but for some reasons I did not click the “Upgrade ” button at that time. Now I no longer see that offer. I really wanted to upgrade to the Diners black.
hello nick, the offer should probably show up in feb or march again, thats what i was infomed from my trust worthy sources in HDFC
To all who missed the offer, please dont be disheartened, the offer shall be back in a month or in march, thats what my sources assure me …
Hi Shen, thanks for sharing this information. I hope it’s true. Fingers crossed!
Hi there,
Any one got the dispatch details for upgraded card??
I selected upgrade option froma regali first to infinia Visa infinite LTF on 4th jan, got the last 4 digits of card number as well, can see that number in netbanking. Got one message on 5th my existing card will stop wrking by 3rd mar or on usage of new card whichever is earlier. Now after so many days no sign of delivery, no tracking message nothing. Has anyone got the updated card so far?
The offer is still visible in my netbanking section (last checked on 10 Jan 2021 at around 21:15 pm; I am having Imperia relationship). In fact, the credit limit enhancement and upgrade offer on credit card is now also shown as a banner in the ‘Offers’ section of netbanking along with Rs. 500 lifestyle voucher. Upon redirecting to different page (after clicking the banner), the page clearly shows that the upgraded card is Lifetime Free.
In my case, I am being shown an upgrade from Diners Club Miles to Diners Club Privilege with fees clearly stated (in the redirected page) as LTF / Lifetime Free. I am not opting for upgrade to Diners Club Privilege and just took the credit limit enhancement from 699000 to 899000.
I upgraded on Jan 04 and the new CC is showing up in the netbanking but no news on the dispatch. Any inputs on this?
Guys, I am going nuts. Is HDFC just one bank or are there multiple banks functioning together in the name of HDFC. Firstly, have any of you got upgrade from DCB to Infinia as part of this Christmas/New Year drive of upgrades that HDFC did? I am asking this because I heard something very surprising from one of their employees who rang up to their branch’s Credit Card incharge, who in turn rang up to another person above him. This is what I was told. Apparently the DCB and Infinia are the same level it seems. So it’s not possible to upgrade from DCB to Infinia. The upgrades that they offered to others, they claim, are all from Regalia First and Regalia to Infinia only and none from DCB to Infinia. I told him that someone that I know got his DCB upgraded to Infinia and they’re claiming that it must have been the old DCB and not the new one. They confidently claim that they’ve not upgraded any of the new DCB customers to Infinia because it’s not possible due to the fact that both the cards are the exact same level. Is that true?
HDFC intermiles diners card looks promising is it worth waiting for instead of taking an upgrade now?
anyone received the new card so far, mine got upgaded on 4th, still waiting for delivy
For my wife we could still see upgrade offer from Diners Premium to Privilege today. I tried hard via Branch to make it DCB instead of Privilege however they are of no help. All blames goes to their CBCI software. No reasons on why
imperia customer with a relationship for 10 plus years does not get upgrade to Infinia / DCB. Thinking of change of branch at least the new Branch might want to help me if I shift all my deposit / relation to their branch
Is there a chance that this offer will come again?
I spoke to my RM regarding the card delivery and he said the card is under printing. So may be all guys who upgraded need to wait for a little longer to receive the card.
Any idea how many LTF Infinia issued by HDFC in this campaign ? (Attn: The Author)
I have applied on Jan.04th, 4pm. Still (Jan.11, 4pm), the card is not dispatched. The CC says 7 working days for dispatch. Not sure, it became like their Fast tag issuance during Nov/De 2019 for HDFC. In earlier cases, I have received upgraded card in 4-5 days.
Maybe in some mid 4 digits.
Hi Guys. This is my first time upgrading credit card so needed some info. I had a call with my RM today and he told me there was a credit card upgrade available for me so I applied for it. But today itself my old credit card available limit became 0. I wanted to buy something from my credit card. Do I need to wait for my new credit card to arrive? I don’t see any new credit card info available in netbanking. Could you please tell if this is expected? Any info will be quite helpful.
Your old card will work normally till you activate new card. When your card will be issued you everything normal. Just new card under section transferred card
you can use your existing credit card. The limit has been transferred to the new card but the old one is still active,
Old card will work till you actually use the new card even though it shows 0 .
Can anyone tell, how long it takes to get the card delivered after applying/upgrade through net banking. I have applied on January 6th, card is not yet delivered.
It does not take more than ten days
DCB card is on the way via Blue dart and will reach tomorrow.
Hello, I have upgraded my Regalia to Infinia card on January 6th with the credit limit of 14.83lacs. Card is yet to be delivered.
Any idea, how long it takes to get the card delivered. Thankyou.
I Got Limit Enhancement and Card upgraded from DC Clubmiles to DC Privilege.
Got new credit card delivered on 8th Jan.
I see comments above that offer is widrawn, but I can still see (12th Jan) message under “Offer” section in netbanking about card upgrade + limit enhancement + 500 Rs lifestyle voucher which looks like below
“Bigger Rewards, Premium Experiences!
We’ve upgraded your Credit Card 4568
& increased the limit too.
Confirm now>> & get ₹500 Lifestyle gift voucher”
Guys who missed the opportunity can have a look under ‘Offer’ section of their net-banking.
I got upgrade offer to LTF INFINIA VISA from my LTF REGALIA (Credit Limit : ₹10.60 Lacs) on 2nd January. The same day, I applied for that via net banking and my card is dispatched via Bluedart on 12th January.
Dear Siddharth, your all blogs are very informative and helpful. Thank you Siddharth, Card Expert and all the people for providing such needed info all the time..!!
I have DCB and every year atleast twice I cross 80k spend hence i get 2k voucher with BMS and Tata cliq. Plus it is easy to cross 5 lakh in an year making the card free. As of now my card would be free till Oct 2022.
Worst part is I have 1 lakh 44 thousand points and have no clue how to use those points.
In my case if i get LTF Infinia i would take it due to low acceptance of DCB and atleast i am loosing 50k spend on my card almost loosing 1600 points.
From past 10 years when ever I click on Card->Upgrade I see a message “This option is temporarily unavailable. Try later” I have more than 1 lakh points and International travel might take another 1 year. Even though my points will not expire how best can i use it ?
I am sorry to hear that Rohit but looks like we’re on the same boat. HDFC is known to woo only some people and not all. I too have always seen the same message always. Despite being a loyal customer and high spender for almost 11 years now all they do is try and trick me into believing that they have not invited any one below my bracket to the Infinia ever. HDFC is known for this kind of disparities in treatment.
Be careful with the points. Generally HDFC credit card points expire in 3 years. Not sure for how long you’ve been accumulating the points. Use them before they get lapsed.
I too have loads of points. I used some points to book a couple domestic tickets for my family in Dec. See if you can do the same. There was 1000 disc as well on smartbuy, so overall it turned out to be a pretty sweet deal with (10X on 30% bill).
My Regalia card with CL 8.1L was upgraded to Infinia with a LE of 1.5L on 2nd Jan. Just got the new card and PP. The previous fancy box packaging is not there. Just a normal HDFC bank envelope like other credit cards. (cost cutting ?)
Also checked in customer care – it is LTF.
Received the Diners Black card today.
Received my Infinia (MC) + Priority Pass by BlueDart today morning. Not in the previous-style fancy box though, but in a regular HDFC mail envelope. Hopefully not a sign of upcoming devaluation! 🙂
Talked to RM about disappearing of offer. He told me some standard tagline that due to RBI hold on new credit cards, we have to wait till end of March. Either he was not aware of upgrades being possible, or as usual, he is just a good-for-nothing RM like he has been so far.
Applied for the upgrade from Regalia to Infinia on 6th Jan, received the upgraded card today 13th Jan. The kit looks quite nice. Had 13.3l credit limit before applying.
I had opted for the upgrade from Regalia to Infinia last week. In my past experiences, upgraded cards were delivered within the next week. However, I received this message from HDFC bank today:
UPDATE!
Thank you for choosing to upgrade on lifetime free HDFC Bank INFINIA Credit Card. Due to unusually high demand, we’ll be dispatching your Card in 3 weeks & keep you updated. Meanwhile you can continue using your existing card.
Seems a lot of people have upgraded recently.
Looks like the delivery of cards are going to be delayed. Got a SMS stating that because of high demand, they will dispatch credit card in 3 weeks.
Got this message today from HDFC
“UPDATE!
Thank you for choosing to upgrade on lifetime free HDFC Bank DINERS BLACK Credit Card. Due to unusually high demand, we’ll be dispatching your Card in 3 weeks & keep you updated. Meanwhile you can continue using your existing card”
For all those who have upgraded but haven’t got their card yet, I got this SMS today:
UPDATE!
Thank you for choosing to upgrade on lifetime free HDFC Bank INFINIA Credit Card. Due to unusually high demand, we’ll be dispatching your Card in 3 weeks & keep you updated. Meanwhile you can continue using your existing card
This offer was for less than a week and only targeted select segment who were upgraded. This was as far as I know, not for existing infinia holders. Not fair, maybe they are planning for a new upgraded version where existing infinia holders will get ltf or upgrade with more perks..quite disappointed.
UPDATE!
Thank you for choosing to upgrade on lifetime free HDFC Bank INFINIA Credit Card. Due to unusually high demand, we’ll be dispatching your Card in 3 weeks & keep you updated. Meanwhile you can continue using your existing card.
Anyone Received the card. It looks like HDFC hasn’t shipped the card yet even after a week.
The new card is visible on my net banking. But no communication regarding the same
Hi CC Expert,
I have checked with HDFC RM about Infinia card upgrade. RM has informed that , it was there with my account as LTF but for temporary period only. (now upgrade is not visible)
I have asked RM to check again with concern team.
Any suggestion on how to get upgrade again.
Thank you in advance.
Infinia LTF Card dispatched. Few points about it. Card applied on Jan.4th, 4.00pm.
1. Received a SMS on Jan.13th from HDFC. The message is “Due to unusually high demand, card will be dispatched in 3 weeks” . This message mentioned “lifetime free card”. (I think the card dispatch has become like their FasTag dispatch mess happened in Nov/Dec.2019).
2. Received a SMS and Email today (on Jan.14th) with card dispatch details. It is dispatched via Bluedart. Tracking AMB number is given.
3.In email it is mentioned, if the address is changed after applying for the card, the card member has to just send a signed letter to HDFC, Chennai (No emails/No soft copy of letter). Card will be dispatched to new address. No mention about any proof to be attached.
Hello… I would like to thank my stars as I really don’t know how this article came up on my mobile while surfing about credit cards… I called up the HDFC’s customer care… They told me that I have an offer to increase the credit limit + free upgrade to Diners Black… Presently, I’m using American Express Platinum Travel card + Membership Rewards card along with other 7 other credit cards of other banks like ICICI, Axis, Kotak etc. I’m fond of having top of the line (as per my affordability)… I got the upgraded card today and I’m happy for this article which informed me about this awesome offer… Cheers.
Now my card is upgraded to infinia . Got a message like will be dispatched after 3 weeks old regalia card got deactivated , any ideas how to get new card details cc has no idea except to wait for physical delivery of card which is almost 3 weeks and old card is deactivated.
Your old card remain active till you use your new card or some 45 days whichever is earlier.
Can confirm it is lifetime free and not FYF as I have received an SMS from the bank clearly stating that it is lifetime free although the RM had also confirmed this orally.
So here comes the first Devaluation for Infinia Card – “No box packing”. Received the card in normal plain envelope (not printed with any card variant). Secondly card sticking etc. so poor quality… was very difficult to remove that adhesive left on the card.
Seems like more devaluation coming ahead for this premium card.
Maybe they don’t want to spend much on LTF cards.
. i received in that fancy box in early january. The later batches are going out as plain envelopes.( maybe because of all the delays?)
I had upgraded my wife’s card on 4 Jan and the infinia card got delivered to me today, sadly it was in a normal packing like Regalia, Any one having a heart breaking experience like this?
It feels so sad in a way I was so hoping for the excellent packing Infinia has!!
Got an message from HDFC that the card will dispatch in 3 weeks.
I am using DCB paid variant. Anyways my card would be free till Oct 2022 (crossed 5 lakhs).
Any chances of converting my card to LTF infinia.
Some point to note is my RM is useless and never in the upgrade tab from past 10 years it showed as upgrade rather “this feature is temporary unavailable try later” is always shown.
Anyone got upgraded from paid DCB to LTF infinia?
My upgraded infinia card got delivered pretty quick. Requested on 3rd Jan, got delivery on 6th Jan (location- Bengaluru). Th epacking was infinia special fancy box.
Maybe those boxes went out of stock later due to many upgrades hence delivery is delayed for many folks and some are receiving infinia in a normal packaging.
Hi Sid, really good website… I prefer coming here rather than going anywhere else to know of latest offers/cards….
1. I always thought credit cards are useless and never used them despite having 2 of them.
2. Finally heard about DCB and got one easily based on my pay package…. After getting benefited from there 10x reward points have fallen in love with CC. Yearly swipes of 10 lakh+
3. After DCB benefits were downgraded got infinia after opening a 3 lakh savings account with hdfc (no other relationship) as my salary was slightly short of their 40 lakh requirement.
4. Now is see it getting offered even at 10-15 lakh salary range and that too LTF to existing customers who rarely use their card.
5. Waiting for a new super premium card with additional benefits (have read your article on that).
6. This high volume hence 3 weeks time story is useless as currently they r not allowed to issue new card and hence have lot og spare capacity to meet demand. Infinia boxes not available is understandable.
7. Any others card do u think offers higher benefits than infinia?
Any infinia user from Kerala? When it comes to Kerala, I think most cards/companies does not consider the state have HNIs. When I spoke about this offer to RM he says only a handful of people in Kerala have this card and he tried processing the card for some high end people (he told me the names of them too 😛 ) and failed to get approval. Why this kolaveri :(.
Thats because all these RMs are useless. They are only useful in case if you need any help from branch.
As far as kerala goes, I don’t think there is any differentiation for state. I think credit card department does’nt give any crap about branches and HNI customers. They have their AI algorithms which is useless and waste. If you are HNI or Imperia then close and go for some other banks. I am imperia customer and I have mailed CC grievance department. Will keep you posted.
I got the infinia upgrade offer from regalia to infinia. I am working in Bangalore, but my bank address is that of kerala.
I’m from Kerala. Imperia family banking for the last 2 years. Have an Infinia, multiple DCBs and Regalias. All the cards started as Regalia 1st , mainly pre approved via netbanking.
RM has never been helpful, I always post/e-mail to their chennai office , getting the upgrade in 2-3 weeks.
Good to see
Email of Chennai office pls?
Thanks Mr.Siddharth for the reply about probable total Infinia LTF cards issued in this campaign (ie., mid 4 digit number – from your reply).
From net, HDFC seems having 5430 branches across India. Probably, HDFC might have chosen one or two customers from a branch but not from all branches for this campaign.
Can confirm that the bank is trying their best to meet the demand , Infinia always had been a slow moving card for the bank, therefore the Stationery (Infinia welcome kit ) and the card plastic is stocked lesser than usual, they are working with suppliers to fast track it ASAP.
Thanks Mr.Siddharth for the info on total probable Infinia LTF card issued in the campaign (ie mid 4 digits number – from your reply).
Just checked in net. HDFC has 5430 branches in India. Probably HDFC might have offered one or two customers per branch but not included all branches.
Received Infinia LTF card today (Jan.17th) 2.00 PM.
The process:
1. On Jan.04th, 4:00 PM applied for Infinia card upgrade in net banking.
2. On Jan.13th, HDFC sent a message about “3 weeks time for card dispatch”.
3. On Jan.14th, HDFC sent a message and email with card shipment details with Bludart AWB no and dispatch date as Jan.13th
4. On Jan.16th, 12:10 PM, Bluedart first time updated the shipment location as “Card Processing Centre” Chennai. (On Jan.13th the card was not handed over to Bluedart, only the AWB number was registered by HDFC)
5.On Jan 17th, received the card at 2.00PM.
I received the card in a regular packet like the one used for Regalia or Jet privilege cards which I got earlier. Not like a simple envelope as mentioned by some members. Envelopes are generally used for replacement cards.
So no complaints about missing premium box packing. What matters is the card.
Guys please tell me this. Has anyone got an offer to upgrade from DCB to Infinia recently. HDFC is forcing me to believe that DCB and Infinia are the same level and we cannot upgrade from one to another. It seems that I can only cancel this DCB card and then apply for a new Infinia and since HDFC is placed under some restrictions by RBI it’s not possible right now, they told me.
I am given offer of FYF upgrade from DCB to infinia. It has been the same for last 1 year or more. Hence rejected the offer. My DCB is LTF
A good friend of mine got the swap from DCB to Infinia on request. DCB credit limit was 12 lacs and Infinia credit limit remained the same. Earlier HDFC used to split and give both the cards if requested but nowadays they are not doing that.
@vikram
I had the same question. Since dcb and inifina are considered as same once might be they are not giving. Now dcb has been devalued just like infinia and fee remains same so you could try. But I am not sure whether they are giving LTF infinia if you request.
I just don’t feel to talk to RM because they are useless. Also I would like to retain dcb because I already reached 5 lakh spend and my card would be free till Oct 2022. So might be after that I will ask for change.
I sent them an email asking if I will be able to move to Infinia later as I was upgrading to DCB.
My mail was forwarded to some other team as they asked me to wait for 3 working days and then after three days They said they can review the request after 6 months. So, I guess it is possible by sending the physical documents to their Chennai office.
@Himanshu
Dont get carried over with what they say. They dont keep up their words. If you are particular with Infinia then dont compromise on DCB. SInce many were issued Infinia you can ask for that. But dont get embarrassed if bank asks for proof and they will.
@Rohit
I actually tried to ask for Infinia when the DCB upgrade showed up and they gave a lame response that they have checked and they will not be able to upgrade to Infinia.
As DCB has a much better reward rate than Regalia, I decided to go with DCB for now and with all this response, I guess I will not be getting the upgrade to Infinia at all.
I did not see a upgrade request in my bank account. then i saw a similar guy who sent courier to chennai office getting upgrade. i couriered my details with upgrade form (did not attach ITR, just plain form ) and i was upgraded to Infinia in 3 days.
How much is your existing limit?
Hi
Upgrade form didn’t have any option to upgrade to Infinia, the last super premium card which can be selected(read ticked) is DCB. How did you send it then?
Also, what was the credit limit of the existing card.
Nithish,
Your Upgraded infinia is Life Time Free ? Or Paid
Regards,
Balpreet
Upgrading from Regalia to Infinia will have impact on the CIBIL score ? If so any idea how many points it will add to the score ?
No
An update for Imperia customers, I have got a reply from grievance cell that all the upgrades are on HOLD which in reality is that they realised that made a mess and got backlash from lot of HNI customers. They have told me that all the upgrade requests are onHold thill January 25th. They will try to raise a request from backend for the upgrade.
So I would suggest Imperia customers to send a very stern email to the grievance cell.
NB : They are still saying that I am not directly eligible and it was only eligible for few customers who had Salary of 40L or above or similar ITR. They are still thinking that this was a secret and we are not aware 😛
Will let you guys know if I get any update after 25th.
HDFC is nothing but BS. Sheer BS. Nothing more. They make fools out of their customers. And please don’t believe that sending a stern email to the grievance cell would help. They gave me some BS saying that I am not eligible for the upgrade from DCB to Infinia and I told them that I don’t take disparity well and am planning to cancel the card. They responded saying that they’re disappointed with me and asked me to cut the card diagonally and courier it to them. That’s how they treat a customer of more than a decade.
:O Did they really tell that to you in writing? The grievance cell?
@Vikram : Did the grievance cell tell you that in mail or writing? That they are ok if you cancel the card?
In my experience they have always been helpful. I am not sure about what will happen to the current upgrade. But they have never spoken in such a manner.
Below is the excerpt from their email to me. They didn’t ask me to try again after 6 months or anything like that. They simply said we cannot accede to your request and if you want to discontinue the card then do the mentioned steps.
We understand your concerns regarding the upgradation of your existing credit card. On receipt of your email, we had taken a detailed review of your card account and regret to inform you that we are currently unable to accede to your request to upgrade your existing credit card account. We seek your kind understanding and cooperation in this regard.
We are disappointed to understand that you are contemplating to discontinue your credit card relationship with us. Your relationship is important to us and we request you to reconsider your decision of closing the card account giving us an opportunity to be of continuous service to you.
In the rare event if you are still contemplating card discontinuance, we request you to forward us a duly signed card closure letter along with your destroyed (diagonally cut) credit card to the below mentioned mailing address to enable us do the needful.
Further, we take this opportunity to clarify that any transaction(s) incurred by you prior to closure of the card will be processed to your card account and will be payable by you.
Kindly forward the letter to our mailing address to review your request.
Through Courier & Speed Post:
@vikram : Looks very bad. Sorry to see this response. Not good customer service at all.
Do you have other relationships with bank? or only Credit card?
@Mahesh
Thank you very much for comforting me. I have a savings account with them for over 7 years now, which used be my salary account about 5 years before. I still move money from the salary account to my HDFC account as per advise of my RM and do transactions from there as my RM said that will increase my chances for getting an Infinia. I also have a home loan with them for almost 7 years. Despite they give me this kind of treatment.
Wow! You are still here! I thought you said you gonna give it a rest on Dec 18
Haha! DCB remains a very good card with practically no competition in its price range other than Infinia itself even after all the devaluations. Therefore, HDFC know that people may crib while believing they are entitled but wont cancel the card in most occasions. 🙂
😂😂😂😂🤣🤣😜😜😜
@Mahesh
Unfortunately bank would ask for proof which you cannot give and in the end you also cannot do anything.
Bank is extremely unprofessional and has no rules and regulations. What RBI did to them is what they deserve.
I had an upgrade offer for Infinia some 2 years back and inspite of my card gets upgraded without any issue bank denied to give infinia and asked for 60 Lakh ITR. After that i dont consider bank much. So if you get it its good and if you dont no point in wasting time on them.
@Rohit : Agreed to you. But if don’t get it this time, I will just close the imperia relationship and use up my points left in CC. Will keep only one account for the bare minimum.
@Mahesh
I am going to do the same 🙂 move from Imperia to classic and move all the Fds out of the bank. I am their customer for 10+ years for both credit card and account and if i dont get its really funny. Only for the sake of 0 balance account I would keep classic. Worst part i forgot to mention that they made me open an account in my family so i did open account for my mother and after that they rejected my infinia card. Never in my life i got fooled that bad 🙂 In the end we can only try and it is their bank and their wish to give or not. So in the end I am ok with whatever end results happen unlike vikram who wanted to cancel the card. Thats BS and bank has done their job to tell him the steps how to cancel the card 🙂
Also there is a youtuber technofino who makes videso on credit card. He got infinia within 6 months of his first credit card i guess regalia directly from 3 lakh limit to 8 plus. So bank has no rules as i said 🙂
If you opt for classic, doesn’t it mean that that you+family will have to keep 5 lakh in combination of savings +FD. Or is it that once your account becomes classic you need not maintain any balance?
Looks like there will be no further upgrade offers from HDFC for current Regalia, DCB or Imperia customers to Infinia.
I have been checking the upgrade offer tab online on a daily basis after 25 Jan and no upgrade offers are available.
Will NOT be moving my Wealth account from ICICI to HDFC Imperia. Atlease ICICI service is better than HDFC for now.
Finally received my upgraded dcb with add on card after delayed a day by Bluedart as usual. Thank you Sid for information otherwise i was confused regarding ltf.
Do we get welcome benefits like Amazon Prime, Zomato Gold, MMTDOUBLEBLACK and Times Prime on upgraded DCB card after spending 1.5 lakhs within 90 days?
@Jaydeep, yes we do get..
Wonder what people mean when they say they want to “upgrade” from DB to Infinia. Check out hdfc site, they both are same category. Can one upgrade from business class to business class!!
@Abhi : to understand that you will have to use DCB and find out the headaches by yourself (not sure if you are using one). Evenif they have put the DCB at same category in website, in reality Infinia is above DCB. Be it points or Acceptance.
1. No acceptance in UK and Europe for DCB – I had lost lot of money due to this were i had to swipe my debit card
2. Infinia the max cap of 10x points 15000 but for DCB its only 7500 points. ( I use it regularly in smartbuy portal and i know how much i am missing out)
3. Infinia Visa is Infinite variant and might give you lot of visa related offers as well.
4. Infinia is a Invite only card even in the website, DCB can be applied online now.
And it you think its at the same level why do you think the bank is not giving an option for customer to choose from? I have a DCB from last 2 years and I am not happy, but they are saying i am not eligible for infinia. So is it not clear that both are at same level.
So for me yes Infinia is an upgrade to DCB and i would like to get it if they approve.
@Mahesh & Abhi
Even though I had invitation for infinia bank denied initially and later they asked ITR of 60 lakhs. Since DCB had restrictions ICICI bank were generous enough to offer Rubyx LTF card so no issues. I did loose lot of spends but as of now nothing can be done.
Good things about DCB
1. Airport lounge now added to all add ons.
2. easy to spend 5 lakhs making the card free unlike Infinia 8 lakhs and end up paying 12000 annualy.
3. Monthly 1000 voucher for 80k spend plus lots of other offers keep poping.
4. 7500 points means 25k spend . If you plan well it can be good enough. Take 3 months EMI to distribute points.
If you are getting LTF infinia blindly grab it if not DCB is also not bad.
While both are under the same category, there is a difference between the two cards and Infinia is better than DCB.
You can surely opt for your choice of seat in business class or, as luck would have it, get handed a middle seat! That’s what the DCB & Infinia issue is all about. Can’t just sit on any seat in business class you know.
there are no middle seats in business. Stop being so condescending to everyone.
I received my Infinia card today along with the priority pass in a normal envelope. Upgraded from Regalia First Signature which was LTF as well. 16 years of relationship with HDFC. Held several cards with them and all have been LTF.
Today received my upgraded inifinia with add on cards and priority passes. My family members hold 3 imperia accounts and 3 preferred accounts. Out of this 6 accounts I got message for upgrade offer only one for imperia and two upgrade offer for preferred.. Immediately I applied for upgrade in imeperia and contacted my RM to ask would be there any charges if Ido in preferred accounts. That useless told me not to apply for upgrade because the bank will surely charge you after one year, As per his instruction I lost two upgrades and now he is telling that he will try for upgrade later, This RM s are working for their benfit only and not for the customers.
Did you receive add-on cards? Thought HDFC is not issuing them.
Hey Sid,
Curious to know about , Airport VIP service (meet-and-greet) of the INFINIA concierge.
What is the benefit, great if anyone can share experience. and what charges it comes at (if any).
adding subscription to comment…:p
It’s paid service but never heard anyone use it.
Received upgraded Infinia LTF today along with the add on card as well as the PP with it. Had applied on 5th January. Packaging is normal regalia like packing.
Surprisingly the PP has been sent for primary card as well as all add on cards. When holding regalia I was holding PP for only primary and one add on. Saved all hassle for applying for PP on remaining two cards.
Also if someone can help me on this, what happens for any e-commerce transaction refunds pending from merchant on old card, does it automatically get credit to new upgraded card on activation or is it advisable to hold the existing card till the refund process is complete?
I too got my LTF Infinia today after applying on 4th Jan in a rather plain vanilla envelope. I got upgraded from Regalia LTF – been 10+ years loyal customer with HDFC bank (salary account – preferred)
My Journey with HDFC CC:
HDFC basic credit card -> all miles -> regalia first -> regalia -> Infinia -> picture abhi baaki hai dooston
The worst thing always RM’s tell every time is if you get upgrade in net banking , we can do upgrade over call. Why would we ask for upgrade if the option is in net banking. Can’t we do by ourselves? I heard the similar responses from my RM from DCB to INFINIA. They are useless for many and are just for name sake. They want the upgrades to be done at their end for their own benefits.
They think upgrade option can be seen only by them in net banking. Don’t know when will they provide service that customer expect for !!!!!!!
Priority card with Infinia , can be used for Lounge entry in India free of charge ?? With regalia, you can use priority pass outside india only ( for free ), while for Infinia, HDFC website mentions – Enjoy unlimited complimentary lounge access at airports within and outside India at 1,000+ airport lounges using Priority Pass. Benefit also available for add on Priority Pass holders.
Please confirm the same.
Priority Pass issued as part of Infinia can be used in India and outside lounges free.
Priority Pass issued as part of Regalia can be used only outside lounges for free and it attacts fee if used in Indian lounges.
You can use it within India also without any charge; lounges do reserve the right not to accept PP sometimes.
Till devaluation of the card, or till travels started again after pandemic, we can use PP in India also. But i guess, HDFC will withdraw PP usage in India for Infinia also – as a cost cutting.
Just curious to know if anyone has got the upgrade to Infinia with less than 8 Lakh limit on the current card.
I rarely used my Regalia in the past 2 years and never got any limit enhancement offers 🙁
Other cards give more benefits than Regalia. Customer support is worst than SBI or any other public bank. This was the only reason for not using it.
Hi Siddharth,
Received my INFINIA in a envelope yesterday, my question is, does the insta vouchers 10x rewards also applicable on add on card or is it limited to the primary card holder, does the 10x/5x rewards program work with add on card also or is it limited to the primary card.
Thanks in advance.
HDFC is making fool of customers. Last year they gave the upgrade from money-back to Regalia card saying it will be LTF and now they have added annual fee in my current month statement. Luckily i have checked the statement and asked them for reversal but now they are saying it is not LTF but if you had spent 3 lakh annually we would have reverted it. And my annual spend on Regalia is 2.99 lakh 🤦🏻 unlucky me. Atleast they should have informed me earlier.
Hi. One query on Infinia Priority Pass. I have 2 add-on cards . Can we all 3 use lounge at same time using priority pass as Priority Pass number is same for Primary and add on cards.
Infinia card should be active once in every six months transaction or else, your card will be cancelled.
HDFC bank website mentions –
“NOTE: For card sourced starting 01-11- 2020, Below T&Cs is applicable
The Bank reserves the right to cancel the Card in case the Card remains inactive and is not used for effecting any transaction for a continuous period of 6 (Six) months after prior written notice sent on the email address and/or phone number and/or communication address, registered in the records of the Bank. ”
Sid, pls explain this…..
Has anyone got any idea about the old DCB users for whom annual fees are applicable, as to what is happening to the status of their card membership?
I mean, are we getting the LTF option or is it only for the new customers or through upgradation process only.
Is it advisable to discontinue DCB card or degrade the card to regalia and wait for an upgrade in future.
I am also in same situation, my infinia FTF card completing one year in April and spends not crossing 8L for fee waiver.
I will try to write mail to greivance officer requesting for converiting to LTF Infinia. If Infinia LTF is not possible, Can bank downgrade infinia card to any LTF card ?
@Sid, Please give your suggestion, Thanks
I am having old diners black card for which they levied the 10k fee in jun 2020 and after talking with customer care they reversed it after excluding gst. Today I just called cc to understanf how much total spent done by me as target is 5 lac, but to my surprise cc confirmed I am holding LTF card 😊. I dont have any written confirmation but fortunately I recorded the call. I think old cardholders can check with cc. I hope this will help some people.
From HDFC website:
“”Priority Pass MembershipPrimary card and add-on Card holders may utilize the refreshment and business center facilities at these lounges. Please note that the presentation of the Priority Pass card at the participating airport lounge is mandatory to avail access.* The access and usage at all Priority Pass lounges is complimentary only for Primary and Add on Priority Pass holders
All guests visits using Priority pass would be charged at US $27 + GST per visit per guest””
==
Does this mean, Infinia card holder need to pay USD 27 each time for accessing the airport lounge in India and abroad? Or Is it free ?
Or can some one explain more on it.
Hi
Lounge access works this way:
1. Primary Card Holder swipes the Priority Pass at the lounge with single access(only self).
In this case, only the primary holder is allowed to access the lounge, which is as per terms FREE.
2. Primary Card Holder swipes the Priority Pass at the lounge with Self and 1 Guest access.(Total 2)
In this case, Primary Card holder can access the lounge for FREE as per terms, but the guest charges are USD 27+taxes.
Guest access means accessing the lounge when you are not a Priority Pass holder.
As mentioned :
The access and usage at all Priority Pass lounges is complimentary only for Primary and Add on Priority Pass holders.
===> If you are primary /add on card holder, access to lounge (India/Overseas) is complimentary with priority pass card.
All guests visits using Priority pass would be charged at US $27 + GST per visit per guest
===> Any guest accompanying the primary/add on card holder, $27 +GST per guest will be charged to your Infinia card.
It’s free for primary and add-on holders. It’s chargeable for other guests accompanying you.
Thanks to Ankur M, Murali and Shivi
The PDF file by HDFC should include the word “accompanying guest”, then there wont be any doubt in understanding.
Acceptance of Diners club is still sketchy. I got upgraded to DIners Club Black and I have seen Diners Club not accepted at 3 places already. Two of them were POS transactions at small shops and one online.
The error seen at the POS terminals is “Restricted Card”
It’s due to higher MDR charges by Diners that small shops are no longer accepting it. It changed recently like Aug-Sep 2020. AmEX charges too have done up along with Visa/MC
Yes, earlier acceptance of Diners Club was a technical issue.. in the sense that some POS machines couldn’t handle Diners cards. Nowadays, it is due to the merchants blocking Diners card from the PoS machines.
I also faced the same problem and spoke to the DCB customer care. They suggested not use the wireless option on NON HDFC swipe machines. I have not tried it but hope that it works!
It was not about the contactless payment.. Even trying to pay with the chip also failed in the instances I mentioned.
The issue is not with contactless payment. Even with the swipe option, Diners Club card is not accepted
I have a LTF Diners Club Premium, and HDFC increased my credit limit on it to 8.76 lakhs. But they won’t upgrade me to Infinia or DCB, they say I am only eligible for Diners Club Privilege.
Clearly the credit limit is not the only criteria for the upgrade.
Yeah the other criteria is not to be on Diners platform
One of my family member was offered LTF infinia from LTF DCB. Limit- 9.26L
Then we revert to original criteria only – Have limit over 8 L for Infinia.
Infinia card ( issued after 1-11-2020, should be used minimum once in every six months , or else, your card account will be closed.
u can find the note in HDFC website under – infinia card fees –
“Joining/Renewal Membership Fee – Rs. 10,000/- + Applicable Taxes
Click here to view details of HDFC Bank Infinia Credit Card Fees and Charges
Welcome Benefit of 10000 Reward Points and renewal benefit of 10000 Reward Points (applicable only after the membership fee is realized and not applicable when the fee is waived off)
*Terms & Conditions Apply
NOTE: For card sourced starting 01-11- 2020, Below T&Cs is applicable
The Bank reserves the right to cancel the Card in case the Card remains inactive and is not used for effecting any transaction for a continuous period of 6 (Six) months after prior written notice sent on the email address and/or phone number and/or communication address, registered in the records of the Bank.”
Dear Sid, Pls explain the new term- condition and how to save our LTF ?
Very Simple.
Plut your DTH recharge on smartpay for 150 bi- monthly and set auto debit full amount from your you hdfc savings account to do the card payment. You card will remain active. 🙂
By doing at list single transaction every 6 months.
Read the new TnC instead of only copy-pasting it. Twice you have answered your own question……..
I was trying to inform readers , to keep using there new upgraded card , or else it will be cancelled by bank. Before upgrade, the older card was not having this same terms and conditions.
Received email from HDFC saying my existing Diners black can be converted to LTF if I open HDFC account additional they’ll credit 5K reward points for doing this. Asked for more clarity on what kind of account needs to be opened.
Dear Card Member,
Thank you for choosing HDFC Bank Credit Card. We are happy to serve you.
We